‘It was a good gesture’: AOC gently mocks Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker for their ‘humorous’ use of Spanish during the debate – but still refuses to endorse any candidate
- CBS host Stephen Colbert interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday
- Congresswoman responded to first Democratic primary debate earlier
- Mocked Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke for breaking into Spanish in answers
- Praised Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro for their performances
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has teased Beto O’Rourke and Senator Cory Booker for breaking out into Spanish during the first Democratic presidential primary debate.
Ocaso-Cortez was appearing on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night, where the Manhattan audience greeted her by chanting ‘AOC, AOC’.
‘I loved it, because I represent the Bronx, there was a lot of Spanglish in the building,’ the New York Democrat replied when Colbert asked what she thought of the answers the candidates gave in Spanish.
‘I thought it was humorous, sometimes at times,’ she continued.
Ocaso-Cortez was appearing on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday
![Beto O'Rourke](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/06/27/06/15312522-7186561-image-a-42_1561611704167.jpg)
![Cory Booker](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/06/27/06/15312518-7186561-image-m-41_1561611698426.jpg)
Beto O’Rourke (left) and Cory Booker (right) both responded in Spanish at points in the debate
‘Especially because sometimes the content of the question, I thought people were just going to start saying…’ she said, continuing by speaking rapidly in Spanish.
‘Which means “I will not give you an answer to your question,”‘ Ocasio-Cortez said.
‘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 surprised the audience when, asked whether he supported Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to increase the highest individual tax rate to 70 percent, he began speaking Spanish.
A moderator pointed out that he had not directly answered the question in either language.
O’Rourke was widely mocked for the moment, with Colbert joking in his monologue that the candidate sounded like he was running for ‘Embarrassing dad at a Mexican restaurant.’
![Ocasio-Cortez teased Beto O'Rourke and Senator Cory Booker for breaking out into Spanish during the first Democratic presidential primary debate](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/06/27/06/15311554-7186561-image-m-35_1561611665156.jpg)
Ocasio-Cortez teased Beto O’Rourke and Senator Cory Booker for breaking out into Spanish during the first Democratic presidential primary debate
Later in the debate, Booker responded partly in Spanish when speaking about immigration policy.
Speaking with Colbert, Ocasio-Cortez compared the ten-person debate stage to ‘a high school classroom,’ adding that ‘there are some folks that, like, didn’t seem like they read the book, and then they got called on.’
Asked who she thought did well in the debate, Ocasio-Cortez touted Senator Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development Secretary.
She added that she thought Booker ‘did a great job.’
The second half of the debate, featuring the other 10 qualifying candidates, airs Thursday night on NBC.