Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s Chris Wallace that she has lived in a relentless state of fear for her own well-being since she was first elected to Congress.
The Recent York Democrat described how her concern over threats has affected her life during an appearance on Friday’s edition of CNN’s “Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace?”
“Do you’re feeling your life is at risk?” Wallace asked.
“Absolutely, I felt that my life has been at risk for the reason that moment that I won my primary election in 2018. And it became especially intensified after I was first brought into Congress in 2019,” Ocasio-Cortez responded.
AOC said she is always afraid for her life since taking office.CNN
Wallace pressed Ocasio-Cortez for more details, asking if that meant she was “looking over [her] shoulder while walking down the road.”
“It means after I get up within the morning, I hesitate to walk my dog. It means after I come home, I actually have to ask my fiancée to come back out to where my automobile is to walk me to only from my automobile to my front door,” Ocasio-Cortez responded.
“It implies that there’s just … a general disposition where you form of feel like there’s almost a static electricity around you. And also you’re just all the time just looking around, your head is just on a swivel, going to a restaurant, walking down the road,” she added.
AOC was interviewed by CNN’s Chris Wallace.CNN
Ocasio-Cortez added that her fears for her life have “very much shaped” her political stances — and said she felt in 2019 that she “may not see the tip of the 12 months.”
“I actually felt that way,” the lawmaker said.
Nevertheless, she pushed back when Wallace pressed her over the present US political landscape, asking if she agreed that “people want each parties to maneuver from the fringes.”
“I feel lots of people on this country may say yes, however it’s necessary for us to dig into the substance of what that truly means. As someone who is usually, I feel, characterised as extreme, I in fact would object to that,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “I don’t consider that I’m as extreme in the way in which that Marjorie Taylor Greene on the Republican side is extreme.”
AOC recently clashed with Twitter CEO Elon Musk.CNN
Ocasio-Cortez has openly discussed receiving death threats since entering Congress. In 2019, she told Time that members of her staff had taken risk assessment training.
The self-described Democratic socialist has also accused Republican lawmakers and other conservative voices of stoking threats of violence against her and other Democrats.
This week, Ocasio-Cortez clashed with Elon Musk — a frequent goal of criticism amongst liberals — over his plan to permit users to pay $8 per thirty days for Twitter verification. Ocasio-Cortez argued that the verification model would allow for “targeted harassment” against women.
She also bizarrely claimed that Musk was chargeable for a malfunction along with her Twitter account, prompting the billionaire to joke that it was a “naked abuse of power” on his part.