If you think about it, having both Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Greene on Twitter pretty much balances things out politically on the platform. Each congresswoman has been drawing sharp and divisive criticism online about their antics, conspiracy theories, and assaults on the other party and both have a sympathetic ear to the radicals within their parties. 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.
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