Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday launched yet another cruel diatribe about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), this time because she said she was afraid she might be sexually assaulted during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Ocasio-Cortez has spoken candidly about her experience several times since the swarm of Donald Trump supporters laid siege to the Capitol on Jan. 6. She said in a recent CNN interview that she thought she would be raped and killed if the mob hunted her down. “White supremacy and patriarchy are very linked in a lot of ways. There’s a lot of sexualizing of that violence,” she said.
In February, she revealed she is a survivor of sexual assault and described how that trauma compounded with what she lived through on Jan. 6.
Carlson, whose brand is built on racism, misogyny, fearmongering and conspiracy theories, has repeatedly trivialized and ridiculed Ocasio-Cortez for saying she was traumatized by the Capitol violence that led to five deaths.
That trend continued Thursday.
“Sexualizing? Get a therapist, honey. This is crazy,” Carlson said. “These people were mad because they thought the election wasn’t fair. Now, you may disagree with that, but it wasn’t about you, surprise, surprise! Sexualized the violence. I thought I was going to be raped by Ashli Babbitt!”
Since she was elected to Congress in 2018, Ocasio-Cortez has been a magnet for attacks from the likes of former President Trump, his allies and the right-wing media, making the progressive lawmaker a target of hostility from their viewers and supporters.
She spoke specifically about Fox News’ coverage of her during a recent CNN appearance, saying she was unfazed by what it had to say about her.
“I actually find it to be really, really fascinating because it reveals a lot about the subconscious of folks that are crafting these narratives, and they very often are speaking to these very subconscious narratives about women, or about people of color, or about Latinos or Latinas, or about working-class people,” she said.