Was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at risk or wasn’t she during the Capitol Hill protest?

The hashtag AlexandriaOcasioSmollett exploded across Twitter on Wednesday as the story offered by the Democratic House member from New York about her “near death”  experience at the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 was called into question.

Ocasio-Cortez claimed earlier this week that out of fear the rioters entered the building she hid in her personal bathroom. During a Monday Instagram livestream, she claimed that rioters had entered her office and said they were banging on the door and screaming. Ocasio-Cortez demonstrated how she hid from the protestors on the livestream.

On Tuesday Rep. Nancy Mace, Republican from South Carolina whose office is two doors down from Ocasio-Cortez’s played down Ocasio-Cortez’s story, saying that the extremists never reached their hallway in the Cannon Office Building.

“Ocasio-Cortez made clear she didn’t know who was at her door. Breathless attempts by media to fan fictitious news flames are dangerous.  My office is 2 doors down. Insurrectionists never stormed our hallway. Egregious doesn’t even begin to cover it.  Is there nothing MSM won’t politicize?” Mace tweeted on Tuesday night.

The Cannon Building — while part of the Capitol Hill complex — is roughly a quarter mile from the Capitol Building and according to Rep. Mace the knocking on the door was by Capitol Hill police.

Without mentioning Rep. Mace, AOC responded in a tweet: “To survivors of any trauma who worry about being believed, or that their situation wasn’t ‘bad’ enough or ‘too’ bad, or fear being branded or deemed ‘manipulative’ for telling the truth: I see you. Community is here for you. You are safe with me, & with all of us. You are loved.”

The events on Jan.6 are bad enough as 5 people lost their lives, but to have to embellish the experience to get some ink is doubling down on bad behavior.