Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) defended her shaky showing at the Munich Security Conference in an interview with the New York Times Tuesday, arguing that her remarks were met with approval by Europeans and that critics were attempting to “distract from the substance” of her message.
“To Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, the discourse about her visit had missed the more important point about the risks of authoritarianism — an argument that she said had been well-received by the Europeans during two foreign policy panels, private meetings with German leaders and an address in a packed university auditorium in Berlin,” the New York Times’ Kellen Browning wrote after interviewing the far-left “Squad” lawmaker following her appearance at the high-profile forum.
Ocasio-Cortez, 36, argued that conservatives seized on “any five-to-10-second thing” from her gaffe-filled remarks in an effort to “distract from the substance of what I am saying.”
Browning acknowledged that the progressive firebrand’s “missteps” at the conference were “striking,” describing her as a politician who is “usually quick on her feet” and “one of the best communicators in politics.”
Conservatives weren’t buying the spin.
“One could dissect her words for the next ten years straight, with the best of intentions, and still one would not glean anything coherent or useful from them,” wrote National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke.
“This wasn’t the fault of ‘conservative social media’ or ‘rocketing’ or ‘speculation’; it was the fault of Ocasio-Cortez herself, who went to a security conference, was asked questions about security, and fell flat on her face at the first hurdle,” Cooke added.
In one brutal moment at the conference, Ocasio-Cortez stumbled over her words for nearly 20 seconds when asked if she would commit to defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
“Um, you know, I think that this is such a, you know, I think that this is, this is of course a very longstanding policy of the United States,” she mumbled as she struggled to answer.
Vice President JD Vance called AOC’s response “embarrassing,” during an interview on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” Tuesday, suggesting that the congresswoman “ought to go read a book about China and Taiwan” before stepping on the world stage again.
“I think [Ocasio-Cortez is] a person who doesn’t know what she actually thinks,” Vance told MacCallum. “And I have seen this way too much in Washington with politicians, where they are given lines, and when you ask them to go outside the lines they were given, they completely fall apart, because, look, does AOC — does anybody really believe that AOC has very thoughtful ideas about the global world order or about what the United States should do with our policy in Asia or our policy in Europe?
“No, this is a person who is mouthing the slogans that somebody else gave her.”
At other points during the conference, Ocasio-Cortez faced online ridicule for erroneously claiming that Venezuela is “below the equator”; struggling to articulate the biggest change President Trump made to American foreign policy; and suggesting Secretary of State Marco Rubio was wrong when he noted the American cowboy archetype originated from Spain.
The New York Times has also come under fire, with critics likening the outlet to a public relations firm, for allowing Ocasio-Cortez to use Browning to rehab her appearance at the conference.
“Some guy named Kellen is running a PR campaign for AOC’s presidential strategy while saying he’s a reporter,” Trump administration official Richard Grenell wrote on X, referring to Browning. “Pro tip, Kellen: if you use the phrase far-right then AOC is far-left.”
Journalist Rachel Bade argued that Ocasio-Cortez’s complaints in the story seem “pretty whiny & only gave her critics more fodder.”
“The most surprising thing [about] all this is her apparent surprise that she’s being scrutinized … .” Bade wrote on X.
“Clean up on aisle AOC,” veteran reporter Chris Cillizza posted.
“Her performance, for which she reportedly prepared for months(!), was a disastrous embarrassment,” Fox News political analyst Guy Benson wrote on X.
The Munich trip was widely viewed as an effort by Ocasio-Cortez to build up her foreign-policy portfolio ahead of a possible 2028 White House run – which she vehemently denied throughout the Times piece.
“If I were running — if I had made a decision or anything about being president, or Senate, or anything like that — frankly, I say this all the time: Am I acting like someone who is trying to run? No! Because I’m there for a very different, specific purpose,” she said.
