Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was impressed with Sen. Elizabeth Warren's performance during the first Democratic presidential primary debate, but she thought other candidates, without naming names, were not prepared.
"I think with a debate stage this big, it can sometimes seem like a high school classroom," the New York Democrat told CBS "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert Wednesday night after the debate. "There were some folks, like who didn't seem like they read the book, and then they got called on."
Colbert joked that the event was like speed dating, asking Ocasio-Cortez who would get a second date.
"I think Elizabeth Warren gets asked back," Ocasio-Cortez said regarding the Massachusetts Democrat, adding that she thought former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro also distinguished himself and that Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., "did a great job" while talking about criminal justice.
When asked about other candidates such as Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and ex-Maryland Rep. John Delaney, she laughed when Colbert asked if she could "pick them out in a lineup" if she had to.
"Sometimes you're an underdog until you're not, so they could still break out," Ocasio-Cortez said.
She also joked that some of the candidates spoke "Spanglish," calling their mixture of Spanish and English humorous, but also a "good gesture to the fact that we are a diverse country."
The freshman congresswoman did not have good words for former Vice President Joe Biden, who will appear on the debate stage Thursday night.
"I think it's dangerous to assume that any candidate is a safe choice, that if we pick one candidate that is just going to deliver an election for you," she told Colbert.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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