Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she’s skipping President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration because she doesn’t “celebrate rapists.”
According to the 14th District representative, journalists have repeatedly asked if she’ll be attending Trump’s swearing in as the nation’s 47th president Monday afternoon. Despite their personal and political differences, prominent Democrats including presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden plan to attend Trump’s being sworn in as president for the second time. Ocasio-Cortez insists she won’t be part of that group.
“Let me make myself clear,” she said on an Instagram video. “I don’t celebrate rapists. So no.”
In May 1993, a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing author E. Jean Carroll in May. He was accused of assaulting her in a department store dressing room in 1996 and later defaming her. Jurors didn’t find Trump responsible for rape, though District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan said that was because New York’s very narrow definition of rape doesn’t apply to the victim’s claim of being digitally assaulted by Trump.
ABC News agreed to make a $15 million “charitable contribution” to Trump’s presidential library in December after the President-elect sued the network because host George Stephanopoulos characterized Trump’s assault of Carroll as “rape.”
The President-elect denies any wrongdoing. He’ll be sworn into office during a noon ceremony inside the U.S. Capitol.
Ocasio-Cortez said in February 2021 that she’s a survivor of sexual assault.
