Tucker Carlson attacked congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for discussing her experience of the deadly Capitol riot, described her remarks as “narcissism on parade”.
The conservative television personality made those comments on Wednesday after she said she believed she would be killed by Donald Trump’s supporters, who carried out the 6 January assault.
Appearing in an hour-long Instagram video, the congresswoman had on Monday described hiding in a bathroom as people banged doors and shouted “where is she, where is she” during the attack.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez also compared those who denied Mr Trump incited the mob, or told Democrats to “move on”, were deploying "the tactics of abusers" as she revealed that she was a survivor of sexual assault.
Mr Carlson - while mocking the New York congresswoman - claimed that Ms Ocasio-Cortez was “wallowing around in Lake Me”, as he dismissed her comments and description of events.
“There she is again. Defender of the common man, yammering on about the only subject she really cares about - herself,” said Mr Carlson. “Wallowing around in Lake Me like it's interesting to anybody but her. Narcissism on parade.”
“The perfect symbol of a culture dying from self-involvement,” he went on.” We've said that before and we've laughed as we did. But actually it's not funny. People will believe this crap. Some already do.”
The television personality then disputed Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s comments and said: “Trump voters weren’t trying to kill her, neither were other US Senators,” and alleged that rioters did not reach the Capitol offices where she was working at the time.
Responding to the same theory shared on Twitter, Ms Ocasio-Cortez said “the right” was “manipulating the fact that most people don’t know the layout [of] the Capitol complex.”
“We were all on the Capitol complex - the attack wasn’t just on the dome. The bombs Trump supporters planted surrounded our offices too,” she wrote.
Another Democratic congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley, was among those who have voiced support for Ms Ocasio-Cortez, and on Wednesday condemned Twitter for allowing false theories about the riot to spread.
“To those who aim to undermine AOC’s powerful leadership and authentic truth telling, you won’t. We’ve got her,” wrote Ms Pressley, who has also described the terror of the Capitol riot.
“But Twitter and any other platform that amplifies and spreads misinformation puts the safety of our families and our teams at risk,” she added. “Completely unacceptable”
