WASHINGTON, D.C. – Cancel culture is alive and well after it turns out, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might not have been exactly where she portrayed herself to be during the January 6th uprising and now, she’s raging because people are talking about it on social media.
When AOC gave her near-death account, we all assumed she was under the Capitol dome, inside the House chambers hiding under her chair as protesters stormed the room, breaking windows and Capitol Police armed with guns pointed them through the windows. We imagined her harrowing journey through mobs of protesters being taunted and screamed at as Ted Cruz’s plan to assassinate her unfolded.
It turns out, that’s not the case. AOC was not under the Capitol dome and in a nearby office building that houses her and other offices for congress members called the Cannon Building. Videos taken from within the building show a relatively calm and orderly evacuation of that building, unrelated to the scenes of violence and unrest a block away, inside the actual U.S. Capitol Building.
Now, AOC wants Twitter to erase and cancel the growing conversation on social media that questions, “Was AOC ever in the immediate threat of losing her life on that day?”
New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has asked her millions of followers to file complaint reports against any and all Twitter users using the popular trending hashtags #AOCLied and #AOCSmollett. The two hashtags are two of the most popular trending ones on the social media platform today after one of her peers said she was not even in the Capitol Building proper during the January 6th incursion of the Capitol building.
On Wednesday, the hashtag #AOCLied was trending on Twitter, accusing AOC of lying about her ‘near-death’ experience during the January 6th U.S. Capitol riots and breach of the Capitol building itself.
On Thursday, AOC followers, after being called to battle by the congresswoman flooded the hashtag with pictures of pets and animals. AOC sent an rallying email to her followers asking them to take arms, equip their phones and cancel anyone who was posting those hashtags.
“As we speak right now, right-wing operatives with millions of followers on social media are spreading flat-out lies and misleading information about Alexandria,” her email said. “But with your help we can force Twitter to take action.”
The claim by the theorists is that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might not have even been in the Capitol building by the time rioters breached the building’s interior. The controversy was sparked by Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace whose office is adjacent to AOC’s in the nearby
“@AOC made clear she didn’t know who was at her door. Breathless attempts by media to fan fictitious news flames are dangerous. My office is 2 doors down. Insurrectionists never stormed our hallway. Egregious doesn’t even begin to cover it. Is there nothing MSM won’t politicize?” Mace tweeted on Tuesday, sparking the firestorm.
Another hashtag trending on Twitter in reference to the claim is #AlexandriaOcasioSmollet.
Mace claims Cortez was with her, in the nearby Cannon Office Building a block southeast of the Capitol where all of the congressional offices are. The Cannon building is connected to the U.S. Capitol through an underground tunnel.
The second term congresswoman from New York City said the #AOCLied hashtag and claims that she wasn’t at risk were part of a right-wing conspiracy against but confirmed that she was in the Cannon building and not in the house chambers during her accounting of events and not under the dome during the breech as millions of Americans had previously thought.
“This is the latest manipulative take on the right. They are manipulating the fact that most people don’t know the layout of the Capitol complex. We were all on the Capitol complex – the attack wasn’t just on the dome. The bombs Trump supporters planted surrounded our offices too.,” AOC said.
“People were trying to rush and infiltrate our office buildings – that’s why we had to get evacuated in the first place. The attempts of attackers & publicly available communications show how they tried to gain access and share location info on finding members for physical harm,” AOC added.
Twitter on Wednesday erupted in a fiery wall of mean spirited tweets against AOC.
Many compared AOC’s accounts of the Capitol riot to her protest at an ICE detention facility. While AOC’s account of her attempted murder on January 6th may not have happened within the Capitol building itself, one thing is certain, AOC was traumatized by the event and believes her life was in jeopardy during the riot.
Here’s what media fact-checker SNOPES had to say about the claim. What is true about the claim is that AOC’s building was also evacuated during the riot and who are we to judge how a traumatic event can affect people differently.
What’s TrueOcasio-Cortez wasn’t in the main Capitol building where the House and Senate Chambers are located.
What’s FalseWhen the attack on the Capitol began, Ocasio-Cortez was in her congressional office, which is located in a network of office buildings immediately surrounding the Capitol, and her office building was one of the two buildings that were evacuated.
I get sad when I see empty parking lots too… #AlexandriaOcasioSmollett pic.twitter.com/K2A5l4kAVv
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) February 3, 2021
Ok who did this #AlexandriaOcasioSmollett pic.twitter.com/TJv7YkhSnO
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) February 4, 2021
I am not calling @AOC a liar, I just want to point out the contrast from her statement on Twitter the day of the Capitol Riot to now, almost a month later.
A much different picture painted. pic.twitter.com/86B5Ylb6Ta
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) February 2, 2021