Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she feared she would be sexually assaulted during the Capitol riot in January.
The New York congresswoman opened up about her traumatic experience during the January 6 insurrection, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building.
The horrific ordeal claimed the lives of five people, with hundreds of arrests being made by cops.
Speaking about the deadly day, the 31-year-old politician told reporter Dana Bash, per People: "I didn't think that I was just going to be killed. I thought other things were going to happen to me as well."
When asked by Bash if this meant that she feared being sexually assaulted by protestors, Ocasio-Cortez stated: "Yeah, yeah. I thought I was."
She described how she had barricaded herself in her office for her own safety at the time of the civil insurrection, and that her instincts as a survivor of sexual abuse kicked in.
AOC continued: "Survivors have a very strong set of skills. And the skills that are required as a survivor, the tools that you build for resilience, they come back in right away.
"And for me, I felt like those skills were coming right back so that I could survive."
The politician previously opened up about her experiences during the riots in an Instagram Live video shared with her 8.7 million followers on the platform a week after the harrowing ordeal.
In it, Ocasio-Cortez stated: "You have all of those thoughts where, at the end of your life, and all of these thoughts come rushing to you. And that's what happened to a lot of us on Wednesday.
"I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive."
This comes not long after 34-year-old Garret Miller, of Richardson, Texas, was accused of threatening to "assassinate" Ocasio-Cortez in a tweet made after participating in the riot.
Per The New York Post, court documents show that Miller bragged about his part in the civil disorder online, and also made statements threatening the Capitol Police officer who shot one of the rioters.
He then called for the death of the New York Representative after she demanded Donald Trump's impeachment and stated that all rioters should be arrested.