Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a complete embarrassment of herself on the world stage.
She is being called out by Democrats and Republicans alike for her gaffes.
She ran to the New York Times to try to explain away her mistakes.
So on Monday night, while still in Berlin, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez spoke to The New York Times by phone and tried to underscore that message.
“This reporter came up to me and was like, ‘Is Munich the new New Hampshire?’ And I cannot say enough how out of touch and missing the point, genuinely, that is,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview, referring to the state’s tradition of hosting early presidential primary contests. “Global democracies are on fire the world over, and established parties are falling to right-wing populist movements.”
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.
She added that she had gone to Munich “not because I’m running for president, not because I’ve made some kind of decision about a horse race or a candidacy, but because we need to sound the alarm bells that a lot of those folks in nicely pressed suits in that room will not be there much longer if we do not do something about the runaway inequality that is fueling far-right populist movements.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez argued that efforts to make clips of “any five-to-10-second thing” from her remarks go viral online, especially in the conservative ecosystem, had been done to “distract from the substance of what I am saying.”
Before we react to what she said, let’s start by laying out the mistakes she made.
It started with her word salad surrounding Taiwan.
🚨 Deer in the headlights: @AOC panics after being asked whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan against Communist China:
“Um… you know… I think that … this is… such a … I think that… this is a um… This is a very longstanding policy of the united states.” pic.twitter.com/Noik7bRpC1
— POLARIS National Security (@PolarisNatSec) February 13, 2026
Click here to read our article on it.
The second gaffe came on the topic of Venezuela.
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. pic.twitter.com/qadcI93rrP
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 16, 2026
She then made a major gaffe regarding cowboys.
It’s literally impossible for cowboys to have been here before the Spanish because horses weren’t here before the Spanish brought them over https://t.co/SCGSZCW4Hy
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 16, 2026
These were the three most viral moments and for good reason.
These weren’t just mistakes. People make mistakes. This is a pattern from AOC that proves she is not a serious candidate. She grandstands and yet has very little knowledge of the issues she actually talks about.
The reason that these clips were what is remembered from her remarks in Munich is because that is all that is memorable. There is nothing new and fresh about going to Europe and bashing the United States and Trump.
Who remembers in 2018, when Germany laughed at Trump for saying they would become dependent on Russian oil.
Trump has been vindicated on this.
The German delegation laughing and smiling in this clip have been made to look like fools.
History will remember that week leadership in Europe led to the deaths of so many innocent Ukrainians. Putin felt emboldened because of weakness in Europe and the United States.
Here is a quick tip for AOC.
The reason your remarks were talked about the way they were has nothing to do with conservatives on social media. It has nothing to do with people trying to distract from the substance of what you are saying. It is that nothing you said is new or interesting. I understand bashing the United States and Trump on the world stage gets praise from Europeans but those same lawmakers are the ones responsible for what Europe is currently facing.
This is why you shouldn’t listen to the doomers. Even if Donald Trump falls in the polls as soon as the American people see what the Democrats offer things swing back.
