Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is characterizing the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as “an all-out attempted coup.”
During an interview with Latino USA set to air on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez opened up about the effects of the riots.
“This was an all-out attempted coup. Mike Pence was taken out of the Senate chamber something like 60 seconds before these terrorists, insurrectionists got into the Senate chamber. Sixty seconds could have meant potentially the difference between what we have right now and a martial state,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She continued, “We don’t want to acknowledge that that’s how close we got. But that is how close we got. We think of coups as something that happens in quote, unquote, banana republics or in the developing or, quote, unquote third world. And it happened here.”
Listen to part of her interview below:
Tomorrow on @LatinoUSA, @Maria_Hinojosa's interview with @AOC. The New York congresswoman opens up about the trauma of the January 6 Capitol riot, "60 seconds could have meant potentially the difference between what we have right now and a martial state." pic.twitter.com/4oceakB5sZ
— Latino USA (@LatinoUSA) May 20, 2021
During an Instagram Live shortly after the riots, Ocasio-Cortez shared her own experience, as IJR previously reported.
“As for myself, I had a pretty traumatizing event happen to me and I do not know if I can even disclose the full details of that event due to security concerns, but I can tell you I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez added, “You have all of those thoughts where, you know, at the end of your life and all of these thoughts come rushing to you and that’s what happened to a lot of us on Wednesday and I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.”
The House voted to establish a commission to investigate the events that day. Democrats would need support from 10 Republicans to pass the legislation in the Senate.