america? >> love you back. >> to be adored and reviled with seemingly equal passion. >> boo. boo. >> get some of that too. >> and to be known by just three letters. aoc. a strange existence for anyone, let alone someone at 28 who catapulted from new york city bartender to well known member of congress featured on glossy magazine covers practically overnight. all part of being aoc. good evening. i'm dana bash here at the u.s. capitol. tonight is the first in a series of special hours where i spend time with people in the news and people of power and influence and try to find out what it's like to be them. we begin with congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez.

while celebrities sometimes use their stardom to go into politics, she reached fame as a politician. the 31-year-old is outspoken, uncompromising, and not just navigating the political world but trying to change it. all while love her or hate her, everyone is watching. >> you're now in your second term in the house. you have 12 million twitter followers, 9 million instagram followers and they all know you by three letters. aoc. so what's it like to be aoc? >> you know, it's an interesting question because i just feel like i'm me. what i really try to be is to be like my neighbors and to be like the folks at the bow dega i get coffee from but there's surreal parts of the experience but i don't feel like that's part of

me. i feel like it's part of this really weird world that i've walked into. >> how are you feeling? can you put it into words? >> nope, i cannot put this into words. >> this was election night in june of 2018. when she stunned everyone including herself. beating congressman joe crawley in the democratic primary. crawley powerful in washington and even seen as a possible successor to nancy pelosi as speaker of the house. you took down a 20 year house veteran. you go head to head with the leadership of your party and at your age, a lot of women, i will put myself in this category when i was your age, i was trying to fit into the world as it is, not trying to change it. where do you get that confidence? >> i think, well, first of all, i don't think it's confidence at all. >> what is it?

>> for me, what i find to be animating all of this is a sense of urgency. and so i don't feel confident doing those things. >> you have days where you doubt yourself? >> every day. every morning when i wake up, i sometimes find myself having to say, okay, like, this is why i'm here, this is why i'm doing this. i didn't take on a 20 year incumbent who was poised to be the next speaker of the house because i felt that i was amazing. i did it because i felt that in the time that we have right now where people are struggling to put food on the table, being paid wages that aren't enough to cover their rent and making decisions between your medicine and the food you're going to eat that day, you don't have the time to listen to your elected officials say, we're going to do this in a ten year plan. it's just not compatible with

everyday life. >> let me push back on you a little bit because there are a lot of people who are frustrated. there are a lot of people who feel the urgency on whatever issue, whether it's their economic situation or they're worried about the planet or anything in between. but they don't run for congress and they don't get out there and take a leadership role. >> well, i think a lot of that, i have to thank my parents for. i was raised with a very strong sense of community and i was raised to say whatever you do, my mom was a domestic worker and cleaned houses and my dad had a small business and they said, you always have to make sure that you're caring for others and that your own backyard is okay, that your neighbors are okay and that we aren't in this for ourselves but part of the community. so when i ran for office, my initial goal was to say, okay, what would make this a success to me? and it's not just winning or

losing. i felt that when i ran, if at the end of running, my community would be more organized and educated and informed, then that's what success was for me. >> the netflix documentary knocked down the house shows what ocasio-cortez's campaign was like when she was written off as a long shot. in this scene, she's getting ready for her first debate with joe crawley. >> take up space. >> what was that about? >> when i was putting my arms like this, it was, i'm not this, i can be this. i'm not this idea of, oh, you're just a waitress or you don't have an ivy league pedigree. it makes you feel like this. the way you take up space is to say, you know what? my experiences actually make me better at my job. i have experiences that colleagues don't have that make me a better legislator. >> have you heard the term i

imposter syndrome? >> i talked about it a lot actually. the first time i sat down in the house committee, the house oversight committee and there are ways that you speak in committee where you are recognized and yield back to the chair. >> chair recognizes ms. ocasio-cortez in new york for five minutes. >> thank you, chair. so let's play a game. let's play a lightning round game. i felt there was no handbook for this, and i just had to kind of look around and pick up cues and you absolutely can feel imposter syndrome and a lot of people come into politics very much groomed for it. they come from multigenerational political families or they come from really elite schooling and so when you walk into that, you absolutely feel intimidated.

and is this a fluke? it's especially harder when some people insinuate that you're a fluke. >> they don't just insinuate it. >> they say, you're an accident or you're a fluke. you being here is just because something went wrong. that you're not here because something went right. this is why so many women of color, women in general, you hear them say, i need to be twice as good to be seen as just as good but i think a lot of us cope with it that way and that's i felt. >> part of being alexandria ocasio-cortez means being a target of scorn and criticism, even within her own party. >> you said once that i think a lot of people including my democratic colleagues believe the fox news version of me. >> yeah, yeah. i mean, it was, my first term was very painful. it was very, very painful.

and, you know, i came in and while may not have been very resonant in our community was very popular inside those smoke-filled rooms. so i took away a friend. and i walked in to a very cold environment, even within my own party. and it would be really weird sometimes walking into a house floor and seeing a colleague who would never say hello to me and it felt like, man, it's really tough to have people make opinions about you that are sitting right next to you who won't even start a conversation with you. it was very, very tough. >> even her friendships are famous. so-called squad, ayonna perez lee, ilhan omar, not just political allies, she says but real friends.

>> i was able to find kinship and friendship and sister. >> announcer: h >> that helped her get through when got in her face on the capitol steps. >> will refer to you as i'm quoting here, last year. >> later apologized, sort of. >> having been married for 45 years with two daughters, i'm very cognizant of my language. the offensive name calling words attributed to me by the press were never spoken to my colleagues. >> which led to this response from ocasio-cortez. delivered from notes she scribbled down just ten minutes before. >> representative put his finger in my face, called me disgusting. he called me crazy. he called me out of my mind. and he called me dangerous. representative yoho and i quote,

a. i am showing my parents i am their daughter and they did not raise me to accept abuse from men. >> you made some very memorable remarks on the house floor. i've covered congress for, not going to do it along as you've been alive but stopped in my tracks. >> in the moment, i was really shocked and for whatever it's worth, i found a lot of my republican colleagues, they go on tv or say certain things but when i was with them in committee, they would be quite cordial, but that moment, i was just really shaken up, but again, as women, we're taught to just accept and disrespect and belittling is so normalized that i had zero intention of saying

anything about it. >> i cannot apologize for my passion. >> when i saw him not apologize, i said, and have that be so public, i said, we cannot show people that this is what's acceptable and we're not going to allow for this to play out this publicly anymore. >> i'm sure you've seen the audio of your speech underneath tiktok videos. >> some of them. representative yoho put his finger in his face. called me crazy, out of my mind. he called me dangerous. representative yoho called me, and i quote, a. >> young women putting on their red lipstick and so forth, in particular, the i am somebody's daughter line, incredibly resonant. do know that at the time as you were delivering it? >> the fact he's somebody's father, well, someone's my father too and i'm someone's

daughter. and the value that i have as someone's daughter is are the values my parents raised me with. i think that ultimately is what that was about. i didn't know how resonant that would be when that happened. >> the fight is not one she welcomed. others are like when she's challenging fellow democrats to embrace policies, breaking glass, she calls it, to get attention for an issue. one of 435 house members, a junior member, yet one of the most visible. that doesn't sit well with some colleagues. >> when she was in the senate, hillary clinton said i'm a work ho horse, not a show horse and some say you're a show horse and not a workhorse. >> i think that's one of the ways people try to chip away to make a person feel small. the fact of the matter is, our job as legislators is to do both. and the thing i pride myself most in is in my hard work.

that's the thing i take an immense amount of pride in. but the other end of this is that if we aren't educating the public about the work that is going on, then it is, we are doing a profound disservice. so if we aren't communicating with the public what our policies are, if we aren't educating the public about the opportunities that are available to them, if we aren't making the case for why we should have universal health care in this country, then we aren't fully doing our job. and so i don't see it as being workhorse and show horse. i see myself as doing the work and educating the public. and that is what i think a public servant should be doing. people would think you have a different position than you actually have. i don't think it's controversial to say that democrats really struggle with messaging. >> you are uncompromising in

your vision, in your goals for what you want to do. so to people who say that is just not realistic, you say? >> we can be uncompromising in our vision and we can be flexible in our path. >> not a lot of people would use flexible to describe you, congresswoman. >> here's the thing is that i think that we can be strategic, but we also need to put our foot down in figuring out, are we really doing the most that we can? and i think sometimes people think that i'm inflexible or that i'm staunch, but it's because i believe oftentimes that for a very long time, congress settled for less, and where the rubber hits the road sometimes is, well, if we can do more by going it alone or do less and get a couple of republican votes on, sometimes i feel like we should go it alone.

>> up next, red lips and the red carpet. redefining political power. >> i think that there is just as much power in femininity as there is in masculinity. >> you embrace the power. >> yeah, yeah. [relaxed summer themed music playing]

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being alexandria ocasio-cortez means being a celebrity and looking like one. red lips and all. featured on the cover of "vanity fair" in 2020 and even shot this tutorial for "vogue" on her beauty routine. >> i just go right in. i start in the low risk zone, actually. and again, i start small and i start working my way out. >> you don't usually see politicians this way. >> the laser on. and i'm ready to seize the day.

>> sometimes take heat for your celebrity status, for being glamorous. >> you came straight out of the tri-state area. this runway look. i love it. >> one thing you said that really struck me is femininity has power. what do you mean by that? >> i think, especially when it comes to women in politics, you're always being picked apart for even the very small aesthetic decisions that you make. and i think it is because femininity has a tremendous amount of power and influence. i think that there is just as much power in femininity as there is in masculinity. >> you embrace the power. >> yeah. >> how do you use the power of femininity as you describe it? >> i think that, and this is not just in politics, but in our

society, in our economy, in our work lives, we're really taught to shy away from embracing femininity and the way i think when we embrace it, we say power doesn't just come in one package. power is not just broad shoulders and power is not just being loud andi talking over other people and power is not just macmakiavellien. and everyone can born with that beauty. >> it wasn't that long ago, maybe your mother's generation where a woman went to work and dressed like a man. and tried to act like a man. >> it's about embracing who you

are and i think that is what's powerful because when you are walking in your full authentic self and you're not a woman that's saying, i'm going to try to lower my voice register or i'm going to try to walk a certain way because that is what power has traditionally looked like, but say, no, i'm going to redefine this. >> a certain people who have obsession with you is friends at fox news. they talk about you a lot. are you surprised with the speed they shifted programming to you? >> it's weird, and like, why are so many grown men just obsessed with this like 29-year-old? it's great. i love the -- on second thought. >> there was a moment on seth myers show when talking about socks. you both looked at each other like, uh.

>> i wonder why. yeah. and i mean, the thing is too. >> talk turkey here. how much do you think is it that, you're an attractive young woman and that's part of it? >> yeah, so much of what they're doing is so visceral, right? and their job is to get at this very visceral reactive place in people. particularly men, but also, tap these visceral lines along race and tap along visceral lines along gender and youth. >> she photographs well and she speaks with her hands but beyond that, does she matter? beauty fades, stupid's forever. >> do you ever watch fox news? what they say about you? >> not a ton. every once in a while, i do. and i think that it's really fascinating. i actually find it to be really

fascinating because it reveals a lot about the subconscious of folks that are crafting these narratives and they very often are speaking to these very subconscious narratives about women or about people of color or about latinos or latinas or about working class people. these caricatures that are developed are not really personal. they are societal. >> so you can watch that and take yourself, you the human being, out of it? you look at it almost from an academic point of view. >> yeah. actually. the right-wing. >> that seems like it would be pretty hard to do. because you are a human. >> it is. the harder one are the critiques within the party. that is the one, nas the stuff that hurts, but the right-wing stuff doesn't hurt. >> how does someone in congress a few months turn off so many

people and so quickly? >> called yourself one of the most hated people in america. you laugh but you have to care. >> it's a duality. and for me, it's not, what i care about is not. i think the thing that's more impactful is not necessarily being hated, but it's about being misunderstood. and to be so deeply misunderstood because there's an engine out there, a media engine out there that just churns out intentional misperception to generate that hate, that is, that part i think can be hurtful. >> how are you most misunderstood? >> just thinking that i'm rash, unintelligent, and that i intend

to do harm. it's unfortunate. >> up next, the shocking revelation about how she thought january 6th would end for her. you said you thought you were going to die that day. >> there were moments where i thought that i was going to die before the 6th.

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on january 6th, being alexandria ocasio-cortez was terrifying. she'd already faced multiple death threats since elected and felt uneasy about crowds gathered outside the capitol leading up to that day. she was in her office in the cannon building across the street when the mob broke into the capitol. >> you said that you thought you were going to die that day. how much of that is because of the threats and the warnings that you got before that day and even two years before that? >> so much better. there were moments that i thought i was going to die before the 6th. the thing that i think some folks may not understand is how direct the through line is between right-wing targeting on tv and how much that is actually

a driver of very real physical threats. i used to wake up in the morning looking at photos of the most serious threats that i could recognize, people if someone came up to me and that's why i felt on the 6th, it felt like a culmination. because there were so many warnings, so many threats, so many attempts to do more that just didn't pan out and i remember feeling, okay, this is the day. i was getting messages at work that day that were telling me, people are looking for you. looking for you. >> she said she hid in the bathroom in her office after hearing loud banging on her office door. >> i hide behind my door like this. like i'm here and the bathroom door starts talking like this. it's behind me. rather, in front of me and i'm like this and the door hinge is right here and i just hear, where is she? where is she?

and this was the moment where i thought everything was over. i mean, being trapped in the bathroom and hearing those bangs. while it ends up being capitol police, it didn't sound like capitol police. from my perspective, capitol is being brushed and every, like all the doors in my office are being banged on with complete silence to nothing else. i run and i hide and i just hear screams. where is she? where is she? there's no way that a person in that situation would have even thought that that was law enforcement. that's not how we're kind of

trained to thinking. >> the man didn't identify himself. >> he did not identify himself. i was psychologically preparing myself for the work. >> one big reason. a trauma she experienced earlier in her life. >> i'm a survivor of sexual assault. and i haven't told many people that in my life. >> what made that the right moment to open up? >> you know, for a lot of survivors across the country, the decision to come forward oftentimes does not feel like a conscious one if you don't say this is the moment i'm going to do this now. i think a lot of survivors would

rather never talk about what happened ever again. i think one of the reasons that impact was so doubled that day is because of the misogyny and the racism that is so deeply rooted and animated that attacked on the capitol. white supremacy and patriarchy are linked. a lot of sexualizing of that violence. and i didn't think that i was just going to be killed. i thought other things were going to happen to me as well. >> it sounds like what you're telling me right now is you didn't only think you were going to die, you thought you were going to be raped. >> yeah. yeah. i thought i was. >> and you understand having thought about it is because of your experience. >> yeah, i think so, i think so. survivors have very strong set of skills and the skills that are required as a survivor, the

tools that you build for resilient come back in right a away, i felt like the skills were coming right back so i could survive and my skills were to survive. >> i don't want to probe too much and stop me if you don't want to, but is this something you reported? >> never. it happened and i grew up in a culture and i grew up in, with a lot of faith and things like that, so there's so many things in our culture that prevent women from coming forward and the majority of women, they will be assaulted by someone that they know or someone that

they're related to, family friend or a first date or something like that. i actually had an experience with stalking before that incident. i felt like i wasn't believed either. this was a situation where in the immediate aftermath, you don't want to be going through. some women don't want to be going through that. and that's how i felt. i felt. >> how old were you? >> i was in my early 20s. a lot of things that happened. you feel like it's your fault. you feel like, you just don't want to subject yourself to the scrutiny. because it feels like you were allowing yourself, you're

signing up to the violated. >> you talked about, even just now, the fact that a lot of survivors of assault don't want to talk about it because they're perceived as victims, but also, allows others to feel that they're not alone. >> yeah, and i think that was one of, there was an extraordinary amount, an extraordinary amount of pain that one endures in coming forward. your biggest fears that survivors have is not being believed. i'm the most at home and the most comfortable here. >> up next, aoc opens up about being kids and what that would mean for her future in politics. >> if i want to start a family, would that mean i have to leave? (vo) when you are shopping for a new vehicle, how do you know which brand you can trust? with subaru, you get kelley blue book's most trusted brand winner, seven years in a row.

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being aoc means being confronted with critics on a regular basis but the adulation is just as loud. >> thank you, thank you so much. i appreciate it. what's your name? >> the family from this bronx neighborhood. though they moved to a more affluent part of new york when she was young so she and her brother could get a better education. still this is her comfort zone. >> hey, what's up? >> she's only 31 years old and living life quite different from most other women her age. >> i was thinking, a lot of people who are in their 20s, they go out and party, they go to bars, hang with friends or starting families, but you are in such a unique position for somebody in the world but particularly somebody your age. >> yeah, yeah. and to some, there's definitely that aspect.

having amazing friends going into this experience. >> i was reading at some point, maybe multiple times, do i have a family? when do i have a family? how do i go about that? i'm very tuned into that because i was 40 when i had my son and almost didn't happen for me. >> i think it's a concern that's so, it's something i think about a lot but i think it's also something that especially like a lot of young women and millennial women think about a lot because it just feels, it's always hard, but i think it feels really hard for us as well whether it's economic pressure, just a lot of people feel like, can you even, is it even possible to afford the family life now that people were able to afford a generation ago or kind of in my case too, we think about things like climate change and then also, just with how

busy my life is, i really want to not just have a family and check it off as a box, but with how demanding work can be. >> you want to be present. >> yeah. how can you be a really present parent and i feel like my parents were really great in a lot of ways and i'm like, can i live up to how awesome they were? and they were really present. i think all of these things are for sure on my mind too and working on the actual logistics of working in congress is really tough. i've even thought to myself, is it even possible? is it even possible? i thought to myself, do i have to choose? if i want to start a family, does that mean i have to leave or particularly in the house where travel is much, much more frequent in the house than the

senate. >> you said you talked about freezing. >> i talked with that about other members but i talked. >> technology is different now. it's changing rapidly. >> it is, it is. and i wish, i think it's one of those things i wish should be more accessible to more people. i think we should have a conversation about why health care and health insurance often doesn't cover this. >> we're running to win. >> the netflix documentary knock down the house shows riley roberts her boyfriend constantly by her side helping and advising her during her first campaign. >> i can do this. >> i know you can. >> one of the things that keeps a lot of women from going for it is they haven't found the right person to do it with. they haven't found the right person to start a family with. you have a pretty solid relationship. >> yeah. no, i'm very, i feel very lucky

to be supported in a relationship and not just in having a supportive partner but the community that supports my partner also supports both of us and i feel very lucky that, you know, my dad always told me that family is what you create. >> up next, an election year is quickly approaching and she has a big decision to make. are you going to challenge senator schumer in a primary race? >> you know, here's the thing. we the perspective to see more? at morgan stanley, a global collective of thought leaders offers investors a broader view. ♪ we see companies protecting the bottom line by putting people first.

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she did it in 2018. the question, now, is will she try to do it, again? >> okay. so, this is one of the questions that everybody, especially here in new york, and definitely in washington, want to know the answer to. are you going to challenge senator schumer in a primary race? >> you know, i -- here's the thing is that -- and i -- i -- i know it drives everybody nuts. but the way that i really feel about this, and the way that i really approach my politics and my political career is that i do not look at things and i do not set my course positionally. and i know there's a lot of people, who do not believe that. but i really -- i can't operate, the way that i operate, and do the things that i do in politics, while trying to be aspiring to other things or calculating to other things.

and so, all that is to say is that i make decisions based on what i think our people need. and my community needs. and so, i'm not commenting on that. >> because you are going to have to make a decision, soon. >> yeah. well, the thing is, is also, i feel like this was a decision that was almost put on me, right? like, i didn't go into politics, and say, i'm going to run. i'm going to win. two years later, i'm going to run for senate, blah, blah, blah. you know, that is not -- that's not in my calculus. i wake up and i say, what is needed and what is necessary? and so, you know, i never thought about this as, like, a decision that needs to be made or not need to be made. i'm -- honestly, my focus is, is taking temperature and how things are going in washington right now. you know, i really do not try to make these kinds of decisions out of a sense of personal

ambition. >> but there is, also, a calendar. meaning, that if you decide you are going to run for the senate, you got to file at some point you know that. here, in this district. >> yeah. yeah. and so, yeah, i don't know. no comment on this. >> when chuck schumer is watching this, he is going to say when are you going to put me out of my misery or not? >> for what it's worth, senator schumer and i have been working very closely. >> i've noticed. >> on a lot of legislation. and that, to me, is -- is important, right? and um, so we shall see. >> okay. i know you're not talking about your future ambition. but there was -- there are a lot of post-its i know you have seen outside here. one of the post-it notes here in front of your office from a constituent says, aoc for president. >> yeah. um, i don't -- you know, i --

i -- i struggle with this because i don't want little girls watching or anything, like that, to like lower their sights or -- or anything in that direction. but for me, i feel that if my -- if that was in the scope of my ambition, it would -- it would chip away at my courage today. and i decide -- i've decided that my courage, in the present moment, is more important than trying to -- um -- you know, being able to stand up and take tough positions that, i think, will help people. but may be controversial today. that, to me, right now, is more important than having some sort of -- um -- career path or milestone. >> but you would have to be more calculating, if that were the case.

>> right. and i think that what happens a lot is that -- i think what happens a lot in politics is that people are so motivated to run for certain-higher office, that -- that they compromise in fighting for people today. and the idea's that, if you can be as clean of a slate or as blank of a slate, that it makes it easier for you to run for higher office, later on. and -- >> be authentic. >> -- to be authentic. and i have decided it's more important. i love our scuff-free life. behr ultra scuff defense. exclusively at the home depot.

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hey! it's me. the longer you've been with us... the more rewards you can get. like sharpening your cooking skills with a top chef. join for free on the xfinity app and watch all the rewards float in. our thanks. your rewards. over the past hour, you heard from congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez in her own words on what it's like to be her. in a more personal and human way than we are used to seeing a politician or a person in the spotlight. i will be bringing you more of these stories on future episodes of "being." i'm dana bash, in washington. thanks for watching. good evening. we begin, tonight, with breaking

news. new terrorism bulletin from the department of homeland security. it highlights the potential for violence surrounding the upcoming 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. what seems to distinguish it, though, from similar alerts in the past is it also draws on domestic factors. quoting dhs's intelligence chief now. quote, you have to pay attention to that which we are seeing right in front of our face. cnn's alex marquardt joins us, now. so, what is he talking about when he says what they are seeing right in front of their face? >> well, anderson, there are a number of concerning factors that have been addressed in this dhs bulletin. the way they look at these potential terrorists is really in two camps. the first, people who could be radicalized by foreign groups, like al qaeda. the second is more domestic, inward looking, like you mentioned. people who are motivated by grievances. people who are motivated by -- by racial extremism. by an anti-government sentiment. in that first group, that's where dhs is worried that there could be attacks, violence, in the lead-up and around the