"I thought I was going to die"

Ocasio-Cortez also spoke in detail about how she encountered hostile crowds in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying she often felt unsafe walking in public. She also described the day of the attack, at times choking up when she recalled hiding in her office as someone appeared to break in.

At one point, she described a man in a black beanie banging on her office doors and screaming, “Where is she?” As she hid in her office bathroom, she said, the man entered her personal office.

“I just thought to myself that they got inside,” she said. “I really just felt like, if this is the plan for me, then people will be able to take it from here.”

“I thought I was going to die,” she continued.

The man turned out to be a Capitol Police officer, but she said that the experience left her shaken and that the officer engaged in a “hostile” manner with her. She also said he gave her vague instructions on where to seek shelter, resulting in her and her staff wondering where to go.