New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s (D) facial expression when former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) began speaking Spanish at one point during the first 2020 Democratic debate Wednesday night went viral online.
The moment occurred at the start of the debate, when O’Rourke was asked whether he would support a 70 percent tax rate on Americans making more than $10 million annually.
{mosads}“This economy has got to work for everyone,” O’Rourke began in English for his first response of the night, “and right now we know that it isn’t.”
“It’s going to take all of us coming together to make sure that it does,” he added, before sharing his response in Spanish.
While O’Rourke earned some praise on social media for delivering his response in both languages, others online couldn’t help but take notice of Booker’s face during the moment.
But despite what some viral tweets may suggest, Booker has said in the past that he studied Spanish in Ecuador.
The New Jersey Democrat answered a question in both English and Spanish later in the night about what he would do on his first day in office if elected president.
In his response, Booker blasted the Trump administration’s handling of immigration as “inacceptable” and vowed to reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and end Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies he said violated the “human rights” of immigrants.