The controversy began last month following the riot when the self-proclaimed Democratic socialist from New York exchanged barbs with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), accusing him of helping incite the attack by objecting to a slate of electors from Arizona and demanding he resign.
The back-and-forth escalated throughout January, culminating in an online exchange whereby Ocasio-Cortez accused Cruz of trying to have her killed.
Then, in a video posted online by the left-wing group Justice Democrats earlier this week, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that, as rioters approached and then breached her office, she was told by a staffer to “hide, hide, run and hide.”
“I thought I was going to die. I have never been quieter in my entire life,” she explained in the video, adding that she hid in her office bathroom.
She also said a man broke into her office and that she could hear him yelling before and after he entered: “Where is she? Where is she?”
Later, she explained that the man was actually a Capitol Police officer whom she said appeared angry and hostile to her.
Her story was amplified by media reports and, some say, falsified, including one from Newsweek which claimed Ocasio-Cortez said “rioters actually entered her office, forcing her to take refuge inside her bathroom after her legislative director Geraldo Bonilla-Chavez” told her to hide.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) noted on Twitter that her office is in the Cannon House Office Building, two doors down from the New York Democrat, and that no one breached the building. She also blasted Newsweek for...