AOC on Skipping Inauguration: ‘I Don’t Celebrate Rapists’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will absolutely not be attending Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration on Monday, and she has no problem explaining her reasons. 

“All these journalists are like ‘Congresswoman, are you going to the inauguration? Congresswoman, are you going to the inauguration? Are you going to the inauguration?’ Let me make myself clear: I don’t celebrate rapists. Ao no, I’m not going to the inauguration room,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram post on Sunday night. 

Trump has long been the subject of sexual assault allegations, most notably from author E. Jean Carroll. In 2023, the incoming president was found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll, who accused him of sexually abusing her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. 

Trump was not found liable for rape, although Judge Lewis Kaplan expounded on the issue in a filing responding to a request from Trump’s attorney seeking a new trial. “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” Kaplan wrote.

The congresswoman spent Inauguration Eve posting several videos criticizing the incoming president ahead of his swearing-in. Ocasio-Cortez also criticized TikTok — which was temporarily unavailable in the United States ahead of a ban that went into effect Sunday — for publicly thanking Trump as the platform’s supposed savior. 

“First of all, Donald Trump is not president right now. He is a private citizen. He does not have access to presidential powers,” Ocasio-Cortez said in one post, noting that TikTok is “signaling that they have agreed to privately collaborate with Trump and the Trump administration.” 

“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 added. 

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On Sunday morning, Trump wrote on Truth Social that immediately upon taking up office he would “issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.” 

“I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up. Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions,” he added. 

Trump has vowed to implement a slew of major policy changes on the first day of his administration — including plans to authorize mass deportations and pardon Jan. 6 rioters. 

To Ocasio-Cortez, TikTok’s ass kissing towards the incoming administration is a sign of a darker dynamic within Trump’s government. “We are on the eve of an authoritarian administration,” she said. “This is what 21st century fascism is starting to look like.”