Nation
AOC was not in the U.S. Capitol building during Jan. 6 riot

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was not in the U.S. Capitol Building when a mob violently stormed it on January 6 but rather in her Cannon Office Building office. The second-term congresswoman has since recanted her experience during the deadly siege, which she has described as “near-death.” However, no rioters broke into Cannon, a Wednesday report from the conservative publication RedState claims.
Ocasio-Cortez has since slammed the report as “the latest manipulative take on the right.”
When running through her experience that day, Ocasio-Cortez said that—out of fear that rioters had entered the building—she hid in her personal room’s bathroom. During a Monday livestream, she claimed that rioters had entered her office, according to Newsweek.
She revealed on an Instagram Live session that she was a survivor of sexual assault and described the feeling she had while locking herself in the bathroom as similar to the one she felt at the time of the assault.
She also said that she was hiding behind the door “and then I just start to hear these yells of, ‘Where is she?'”
The yells, it turns out, came from a Capitol Police officer. He reportedly burst into her office, whose presence, she said, “didn’t feel right” and that he was looking at her “in all of this anger and hostility.” One of her staffers reportedly wondered if he would have to fight the officer.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), whose office is two doors down from the New York congresswoman’s, on Tuesday played down Ocasio-Cortez’s story, saying that the extremists never reached their hallway.
Ocasio-Cortez, Mace tweeted, “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?”
The day after Mace’s tweet, without mentioning Mace, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “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. Community is here for you. You are safe with me, & with all of us. You are loved!”
When firing back at RedState‘s report in a thread, she said the right “are manipulating the fact that most people don’t know the layout 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.”
“People were trying to rush and infiltrate our office buildings – that’s why we had to get evacuated in the first place,” she continued. “The attempts of attackers & publicly available communications show how they tried to gain access and share location info on finding members for physical harm.”
“It is also very damning and revealing that the GOP is now digging both heels in a discrediting campaign,” the Bronx and Queens congresswoman added. “It’s because they know they are implicated, so they’re pivoting to (again) the classic abuse playbook of “it’s not as bad as they say.” It was that bad. It’s actually worse.”
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

Middle East
US responds to Iranian drone strike that killed US contractor with “precision airstrikes”

The U.S. military launched multiple precision airstrikes in Syria, leaving at least 8 Iranians dead in response to the Iranian drone strike which left a US contractor dead and five service members injured, according to numerous reports.
The DOD said that a UAV belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps crashed into a building in northeast Syria at 1:38 p.m. According to a Fox News report, the “U.S. airstrike at an arms depot in Harabesh, in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour left six Iranian-backed fighters dead. A second U.S. bombing at a post near the town of Mayadeen killed another two fighters, according to the Observatory, whose reporting relies on local Syrian contacts.”
U.S. intelligence officials stated that they were able to trace the UAV back to Iran. After President Biden received the details of the strike he gave the authorization to conduct a counter attack.
Moreover, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said, “at the direction of the President, I authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” he said.
“The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,” he added.
General Michael Kurilla, Commander of CENTCOM (United States Central Command), also stated that the airstrikes were in response to the attack on an American contractor and wounded troops.
“This evening, we responded to an attack on our forces that killed an American contractor and wounded our troops and another American contractor by striking facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Krill said. “This was another in a series of attacks on our troops and partner forces.”
He shared his condolences with the families by stating that “thoughts and prayers of US Central Command are with the Family of our contractor killed and with our wounded service members and contractor.”
You can follow Alexander Carter on Twitter @AlexCarterDC
-
China4 days ago
Chinese Media Showcases President Xi’s Trip to Russia
-
China4 days ago
North Korea tests missiles in simulated Nuclear counterattack
-
Nation3 days ago
House demands Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to release communications on ‘unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority’ against Trump
-
Immigration3 days ago
Texas, U.S. officials warn Americans not to travel to Mexico as cartel violence escalates