AOC says she’s skipping Trump inauguration because ‘I don’t celebrate rapists’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration as she “doesn’t celebrate rapists,” in reference to the president being found by a judge to have raped writer E. Jean Carroll.
The outspoken Democratic congresswoman took to Instagram to quash any speculation that she would be makeing the trip to Washington, DC on Monday to watch Trump being sworn into office for a second time.
“All these journalists were like, ‘Congresswoman, are you going to the inauguration?,’” Ocasio-Cortez, 35, said in a video posted to her social media page on Sunday with the caption, “guess I’m old school that way”.
“Let me make myself clear: I don’t celebrate rapists. So, no. I’m not going to the inauguration,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez continued her tirade on X, goading conservative account Libs of TikTok that shared the clip and claimed that Trump should pursue legal action over her comments.
“Oh, are you triggered? Cry more,” the congresswoman replied.
Elon Musk, Trump’s incoming head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, commented on her post, “Unhinged”.
Her comments appear to concern the swathe of allegations made against Trump between the 1980s to 2013. At least 18 women have accused Trump of varying inappropriate behavior which include allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and has never been criminally convicted of rape.
He has, however, been found civilly liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of columnist and author E. Jean Carroll in a New York department store changing room in 1995 or 1996 – which resulted in her being awarded $88.3 million in damages.
In November, 2019, Carroll filed a lawsuit against Trump, accusing him of defamation by claiming she lied about him allegedly raping her. Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Trump in November 2022 that renewed – and expanded – her claim under the Adult Survivors Act.
By May 2023, a jury of six men and three women found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, and thre president-elect ordered to pay $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Trump, however, was not found liable for rape but for a lesser degree of sexual abuse.
In August 2023, judge Lewis Kaplan denied Trump’s counter claim and said Carroll’s accusation of rape is “substantially true”.
In a September 2023 summary judgement, Trump was found liable for defaming Carroll and, following a trial held in January 2024, the victim was awarded an additional $83.3 million in damages. Trump made an unsuccessful counterclaim and in December 2024 lost his initial appeal, with the judge dismissing the case.
The same month, ABC News agreed to pay $15m Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor, George Stephanopoulos, falsely claimed in March 2024 that the president-elect had been found “liable for rape”.
In a separate Instagram story posted earlier on Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that TikTok is being used as a “propaganda tool” for the Trump administration after the Chinese social media company thanked the president-elect for his support after the app went dark for US users on Saturday.
“And for all of those concerns that people were saying that TikTok is going to be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese, understand they’re using it as a propaganda tool for the right,” she said in another video.
She later warned her followers that the US was on the “eve of an authoritarian administration,” adding that “this is what 21st century fascism is starting to look like”.
The Independent has contacted the Trump Transition Team for more information.
