Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Out Hypocrisy of "Blue Lives Matter" After Capitol Attack

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (open in new tab) spoke candidly about the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol last week in a one-hour Instagram Live video viewed by nearly 100,000 people on Tuesday. The following evening, she shared two short clips from the live stream to her Instagram feed, in which she condemned the hypocrisy of the Blue Lives Matter movement in the wake of the Capitol attack. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was overpowered by the mob and struck in the head with a fire extinguisher, killing him.

"I don't ever want to hear or see Republicans talk about blue lives again," Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said in the first clip. 'For them, this was never about safety. Because if they actually cared about the rule of law, they would speak up when people break the law."

"They don't care about the law. They don't care about order. They don't care about safety. They don't care about white supremacy. They care more about preserving social order and the white myth than they do about the grandeur of democracy." That is what they care about. They want power more than they want democracy."

In the second clip, Ocasio-Cortez adds. 'We need to stop judging things based on whether we think they are right and stop pretending that this shit is complicated. It's not. Are you on the side of the people or the mob? It's clear."

Minutes after Tuesday's live feed, Ocasio-Cortez said she feared for her life as a pro-Trump mob rampaged through the Capitol (opens in new tab). She said, "I went through a pretty traumatic event, and I don't even know if I can reveal the full story of that event because of security concerns, but I can tell you that I went through a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die."

"At the end of your life, those thoughts come rushing in," she continued. 'That's what happened to many of us on Wednesday. We didn't know if we would make it through the day alive. Not just in a general sense, but in a very specific sense."

Ocasio-Cortez, as reported by the Washington Post (opens in new tab), revealed that she did not evacuate to the protected "escape point" where lawmakers were instructed to take refuge, fearing that other lawmakers would share her location with the mob. She said, "There were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white supremacist members of Congress at that evacuation point. So I didn't feel safe with other members of Congress."

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that she shared Ocasio-Cortez's concerns about the mandated safe room, noting that some Republicans did not wear masks during the evacuation. Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Congressman Brad Schneider tested positive for COVID-19, the Associated Press reported (opens in new tab).

"The moment I realized that the "safe room" from the violent white supremacist mob included the treasonous white supremacist and anti-masculinist legislators who incited the mob in the first place, I left," tweeted Rep. Presley.

"I am outraged that more and more of my colleagues are testing positive by the day."

According to Chief of Staff Sarah Groh, Congressman Presley's office also turned out to be unsafe. Groh told the Boston Globe (open in new tab) that she and Presley, along with Presley's husband and other staff, noticed that the security system had been sabotaged after she and Presley were holed up in the office. 'Every panic button in my office had been ripped out.'