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News World Americas US politics Donald Trump Jr shares hateful memes mocking AOC’s Capitol riots trauma Representative Ocasio-Cortez shared an emotional account of hiding while fearing for her life as pro-Trump rioters swarmed the Capitol
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Subscribe Already subscribed? Log in File Image: Donald Trump Jr., son of U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a Republican National Committee Victory Rally at Dalton Regional Airport January 4, 2021 in Dalton, Georgia. (Getty Images)
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Your support makes all the difference. Close Read more Donald Trump Jr shared several memes mocking the Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her account of the invasion of the Capitol on 6 January by pro-Trump rioters.
The Trump scion shared the smudge cat meme in a post questioning the politician's claim that she was nearly killed in the riots, and suggesting she was barely even present during the violent insurrection.
In another post on Instagram, he shared a morphed image of TV actor Jussie Smollett with that of the New York congresswoman – Smollett was indicted in February 2020 for allegedly staging a fake hate crime assault. The post was accompanied with the text "Alexandria Ocasio-Smollett".
This is not the first time where members of the Republican party have rebuked Ms Ocasio-Cortez for revealing that she feared for her life on 6 January as she hid from rioters in the bathroom of her office.
Congresswoman Nancy Mace suggested that Ms Ocasio-Cortez exaggerated her experience of the riot and that she was in her office in the nearby Cannon House Building, and not in the US Capitol Building, during the insurrection. Ms Mace said that her office is two doors down from Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s and that “insurrectionists never stormed our hallway”.
But Ms Ocasio-Cortez branded the efforts by Republicans to discredit her as “very damning and revealing”.
“To survivors of any trauma who worry about being believed, or that their situation wasn’t ‘bad’ enough or ‘too’ bad, or fear being branded or deemed ‘manipulative’ for telling the truth: I see you,” she tweeted.
“Community is here for you. You are safe with me, and with all of us. You are loved!”
In the video that has amassed more than 4 million views, Representative Ocasio-Cortez also shared that she is a survivor of sexual assault and denounced Republicans telling her and others to "move on" from the storming of the US Capitol.
“The reason I say this and the reason I'm getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it's not a big deal, that we should forget what's happened, or even telling us to apologise,” she said.
“These are the same tactics of abusers. And, um, I'm a survivor of sexual assault.”
The congresswoman did not go into detail about her sexual assault.
“And I haven't told many people that in my life. But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other,” she added.
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