Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stumbled over her words at the Munich Security Conference on Friday and wouldn’t commit to defending Taiwan if China ever invades.
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez said as she struggled to answer the question from moderator Francine Lacqua of Bloomberg TV.
“What we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point,” she added.
“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.”
Beijing has long claimed to have sovereignty over Taiwan — despite the East Asian island having its own government, military and currency.
The Chinese military staged massive war exercises around Taiwan in December, sparking fears that it could be preparing to invade the island.
China’s communist government described the exercises as a “stern warning,” following the Trump administration’s approval of a $11 billion arms sale to Taiwan.
US policy on whether American forces would intervene in an invasion has historically been ambiguous.
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks in Germany come as speculation mounts that she’s eyeing a 2028 White House run.
During the forum, Ocasio-Cortez, 36, was unable to articulate the most significant foreign policy shift that occurred under President Trump.
“The single-biggest?” “The Squad” member said as she asked for clarification, laughing slightly.
“Well, I think zooming out beyond just this presidential administration,” Ocasio-Cortez rambled. “I think that what we are seeing is — between President Trump’s first administration pulling out of long-standing international agreements; then you have President Biden, who is opting back into some of them, such as, for example, with the Paris Climate Accords, and then you have President Trump that’s elected again — I think what we are seeing now is this idea that US foreign policy is — and some of our more basic and foundational values-based commitments seem to be enacted based on the partisanship of whoever is elected.”
The progressive firebrand added that she believes Trump has played “hokey-pokey” with “many of our commitments,” including foreign aid and the Paris agreement.
