Ocasio-Cortez pokes Democrats for ‘humorous’ use of Spanish in debate

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) poked fun Wednesday night at Democratic 2020 White House hopefuls for their “humorous” use of Spanish in the party’s first primary debate.

“I loved it, because, I represent the Bronx and there was a lot of Spanglish in the building,” the New York lawmaker said on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

{mosads}“I mean I thought it was humorous sometimes, especially because sometimes the content of the question I just thought people were going to start saying ‘Hola, estoy postulando por presidente y no te voy a dar una respuesta a su pregunata,’ which means I will not give you an answer to your question.”

“But it was good,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “I thought it was a good gesture to the fact that we are a diverse country.” 

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) was the first candidate to break out his Spanish during the first debate in Miami, which garnered a look from Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) that went viral. 

Booker later attempted to answer a question about what he would do about the border crisis in Spanish.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro also sprinkled some words in Spanish — including saying “adios” to President Trump in 2021 — during the debate.

Hispanics are expected to make up roughly 13 percent of eligible voters in the 2020 election, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, making them the largest ethnic or racial minority group in the electorate, edging out black voters.

There are more than 40 million native Spanish speakers living in the U.S., according to census data.