Ocasio-Cortez mocks Beto O'Rourke, Cory Booker for speaking in Spanish, compares Democratic debate to 'high school classroom'
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gently mocked 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Beto O'Rourker and Senator Cory Booker for randomly speaking in Spanish during the first Democratic presidential primary debate on Wednesday.
"I loved it because I represent the Bronx, there was a lot of Spanglish in the building," the New York Democrat said after the debate.
She made the statement during an appearance on CBS's 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert', where Colbert asked ask what she thought of the candidates making statements in Spanish during the debate.
"I thought it was humorous, sometimes... at times," she said. "Especially because sometimes the content of the question, I thought people were just going to start saying..." she said.
She then continued speaking rapidly in Spanish, saying, "I will not give you an answer to your question."
"But it was... It was good. I thought it was a good gesture to the fact that we are a diverse country," she continued.
O'Rourke, the presidential contender from Texas, responded in Spanish when he was asked whether he supported Ocasio-Cortez's proposal to increase the highest individual tax rate to 70 percent.
A moderator subsequently pointed out that he had not directly answered the question in either language.
Colbert, during his monologue segment, also mocked O'Rourke, saying that the candidate sounded like he was running for "embarrassing dad at a Mexican restaurant."
After O'Rourke, Booker also spoke in Spanish while talking about his immigration policy.
Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest Congresswoman in US history, during the Colbert show, compared the ten-person Democratic debate to a "high school classroom." She then added, "There are some folks that didn't seem like they read the book, and then they got called on."
When Colbert asked her who did well in the debate, Ocasio-Cortez mentioned the names of Senator Elizabeth Warren and a former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.
She added that, according to her, Booker also "did a great job."