- by foxnews
- 23 Feb 2026
"My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain," Ocasio-Cortez said, laughing. "I believe that Mexicans and the descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that."
Matt Whitlock, a GOP strategist, called Ocasio-Cortez's showing "an absolute train wreck," calling her out for "Talking Nazis, Mexico and Spain, and the word salad heard round the world on Taiwan."
Political strategist Marco Frieri reacted, "I don't understand why AOC is trying to rewrite this. It just makes her look bad."
David Harris, an author on antisemitism, wrote that "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) isn't just an ignoramus. She's dangerous because she has the support of a larger group of ignoramuses."
OutKick founder Clay Travis compared Ocasio-Cortez's answer about U.S. policy on Taiwan to a viral beauty pageant answer from 2007, quipping, "Who gave the better answer to a foreign policy question: AOC or Miss South Carolina?"
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., the term-limited governor of the key Great Lakes battleground state, was also criticized.
Asked what victory would look like for Ukraine, Whitmer said Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, who were sitting with her on the panel, were "much more steeped in foreign policy than a governor is."
"Ukraine's independence, keeping their land mass and having the support of all of the allies, I think, is the goal," Whitmer added.
The four-term lawmaker appeared to stall for nearly 20 seconds before offering that the U.S. should try to avoid reaching a clash with China over Taiwan.
"This is, of course, a, a very long-standing, policy of the United States, and I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise," said Ocasio-Cortez.
Conservative journalist Eric Daughtery called the response a "word salad," writing in all-caps that she had "SELF-DESTRUCTED."
"AOC pontificates that we can't just capture the leaders of nations like Venezuela because they are below the equator. Venezuela is not below the equator," Johnson wrote.
Independent journalist Nick Sortor wrote, "AOC has AGAIN made a fool out of herself on stage saying that we can't capture leaders like Maduro in Venezuela 'just because the nation is south of the equator' NONE of Venezuela is south of the equator," adding, "PLEASE run in 2028, AOC."
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, chimed in on X, writing, "It's bad enough that @AOC, who barely speaks Spanish, is showcasing her lack of basic geography in Europe instead of spending time helping her constituents. What's worse is the woke white liberals in Germany felt compelled to clap for her."
"Wokeness is truly a mind virus," he added.
Prominent Catholic leader Bishop Robert Barron also expressed concern about Ocasio-Cortez's statements over the weekend. In a video released on X, Barron said Ocasio-Cortez's dismissal of Rubio's appeal to Western values and casting of class struggle as the defining global issue is "right out of the Marxist playbook."
Barron said this "concerns me not just as someone who follows politics but as a bishop of the Catholic Church."
"Marx himself said that the first critique is a critique of religion, and his political adepts followed it. The first thing that the Marxist tyrannies went after, in most cases, was religion. I'm getting a little concerned that in some of these leading figures in our own politics, a Marxist philosophy is taking hold," said Barron.
"As a religious leader, this is concerning me quite a bit. Take a look, everybody, attend to the language, in a way they're telling us who they are and what they're for, and I think that should be very concerning to everybody," he concluded.
Ocasio-Cortez's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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