NEW YORK — Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera vouched for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., after his Fox News colleague Tucker Carlson called the left-wing politico an “entitled rich white lady” on Friday.
“To be clear Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a proud woman of color,” Rivera tweeted Tuesday. “To claim otherwise is mere provocation.”
Carlson claimed otherwise on an episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” during a rant about a book on the liberal lawmaker he felt was too flattering.
“There is no place on Earth, outside of American colleges and newsrooms, where Sandy Cortez would be recognized as a ‘woman of color,’ because she’s not,” he falsely claimed. “She’s a rich, entitled white lady. She’s the pampered, obnoxious ski bunny in the matching snowsuit who tells you to pull up your mask while you’re standing in the lift line at Jackson Hole. They’re all the same.”
According to her congressional biography page, Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx to a dad who is a second-generation Bronxite and a mom who is from Puerto Rico. Her parents met in Puerto Rico, according to the 32-year-old progressive, who said her mom learned English after moving to New York City.
AOC addressed Carlson’s remarks on Twitter, using a bit of Spanish.
“This is the type of stuff you say when your name starts with a P and ends with dejo,” she tweeted.
She was referring to the Spanish word “pendejo,” which essential translates to “a—hole or idiot,” according to Dictionary.com. She also called the right-wing conspiracy pundit “trash” in Spanish and “a creep” in English.
Rivera, who frequently bickers with his Fox News colleagues, was born in New York City to a Puerto Rican father and a Russian Jewish mother.
Ocasio-Cortez told attendees at a 2018 Hanukkah event that her family had been tracing its roots in recent years and learned that “many generations ago” her family tree included Sephardic Jews.” That Jewish group, which numbered around 300,000 according to Haaretz, fled Spain in the 15th century.
Carlson is well-known for espousing rhetoric that’s highly offensive to minority groups.
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