AOC wasn't in the Capitol Building at the time of the Jan. 6 riot—she was in another building entirely

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has spoken at length about her experience during the Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6. From her live Instagram videos, it has seemed like she was on the front line, facing down Trump supporting rioters in the halls outside her office. But it turns out, Ocasio-Cortez wasn't in the Capitol at the time of the assault on Congress, she was in her office another building entirely.

Ocasio-Cortez's congressional office is in the Cannon House Office Building, according to her website, her Washington, DC address is 229 Cannon HOB. The Cannon HOB is accessible to the Capitol via tunnel. On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez spoke to millions of fans on Instragram relaying her past experience of sexual assault, which she said left her traumatized. This experience, she said, was compounded by her what happened to her during the Capitol Hill riot.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said that her office is in the same hallway as Ocasio-Cortez, two doors down, and that there were no rioters in that area at any time. She called out the New York representative for her "egregious" claims.

Taking emotion out of the equation, it appears that what happened was that Ocasio-Cortez was in her office in a building on congressional campus at the time the Capitol Building was unlawfully accessed by a mob of violent rioters seeking to disrupt Congress. Ocasio-Cortez was afraid, in her office in another building, and hid in the bathroom.

A short time later, as she was still hiding in the bathroom, a Capitol Hill Police Officer came to her office and checked on her safety, directing her where to go to be evacuated from any impending danger. She did not trust the officer's intention, but complied with his directive, took her handbag, and left her office, along with a member of her staff, who similarly did not trust the officer.

Ocasio-Cortez said that the officer was "looking at me with all this anger and hostility. At first, in my brain and in my mind, I just came from this super intense experience just now, maybe I'm reading into this, right? Like maybe I'm projecting, maybe I'm projecting something on to him that, maybe I'm just sensing anger but maybe he's not trying to be angry, um."

"But I talked to... my legislative director, and he said 'no, I didn't know if he would help us or hurt us either, and [he] was actually like 'this man came with so much hostility, that um" she said. She said that her staffer was "sizing him up" to see if he "would have to fight him."

She compared this experience to "so many other communities in this country where you don't know if you're safe or not." The officer told her where to go, and she said "we're just so rattled in that moment, and the situation felt so volatile with the officer that I run over, I grab my bag, and we just start running over to that building."

In her view, many members of the GOP, both in the Senate and House, are "using the same tactics as abusers," and she fears that they will "do it again."

Ocasio-Cortez later said that she believed her colleagues in the GOP were white supremacists who she feared would allow others do to harm to her. Ocasio-Cortez falsely accused Senator Ted Cruz of "trying to get [her] killed," that she wouldn't attend President Joe Biden's inauguration because she didn't "feel safe" around Republicans, and has demanded the removal of Republicans in the House and Senate.