Oh, the ignorant, misguided right-wingers that put Donald Trump back in the Oval Office, what have you done? You have made an embarrassment of the United States on the world stage—we often hear this sentiment.
That is the case even after four years of President Joe Biden in office, who did things such as introducing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine as his mortal enemy, President Putin of Russia, at a joint press conference; or apparently defecating in his pants in front of President Macron of France at the anniversary ceremony for the D-Day invasion in Normandy. He did all that in just the year of his prematurely ended re-election campaign, by the way.
This time, however, the world got another stark reminder that the ‘progressive intellectual dominance’ may just be a myth after all.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York attended a panel at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany last Friday. At the event, she was asked about one of the more pressing topics of geopolitics of the day, China’s potential military action against Taiwan.
Her answer: stammering like a junior in high school when asked to give a report on a book she didn’t read. You can watch the cringeworthy moment for yourself below.
AOC, as she is better known among her supporters, travelled to Berlin, Germany on the same weekend. She had a perfect opportunity to redeem herself for that embarrassing display at the Munich panel: being interviewed on foreign policy matters at the Technische Universität Berlin.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Makes a Gaffe about Venezuela
However, she ended up only making things worse for herself with another gaffe. When opining on the Trump administration’s capture of former President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, she said:
‘It is not a remark on who Maduro was as a leader. He cancelled elections, he was an anti-democratic leader. That doesn’t mean that we can kidnap ahead of state and engage in acts of war just because the nation is below the Equator.’
There is one glaring issue with that statement: the entire territory of Venezuela lies above the Equator.
The fact that Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decided to pronounce Maduro’s name with a distinct Spanish accent just adds to the comedy of the situation. However, even putting that aside, this seems to be just a botched attempt at referring to the Monroe Doctrine, which declares the Western hemisphere as the United States’ distinct sphere of influence, not the Southern hemisphere. That would not make much sense to begin with, as the US itself is in the Northern Hemisphere.
AOC has been considered among the potential 2028 presidential candidates for the Democratic Party. While she is generally believed to be a long shot for the presidential nomination, the same certainly cannot be said about her rumoured Senate ambitions. In fact, she is seen by many as the natural successor of Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, and as the flagship name for the progressive, socialist wing of the Democrats.
Related articles:
