The brave New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bravely fled from a potential debate by a potential Republican contender for her district seat.

According to the New York Post, Talk-radio producer Rich Valdes and Ocasio-Cortez were both marching in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday. When Valdes spotted the congresswoman, he approached her to introduce himself and challenge her to a debate on capitalism vs. socialism.

According to the Post, the moment Valdes went to make the introduction, Ocasio-Cortez spotted him and literally ran away:

But Ocasio-Cortez “cut her handshaking short, jerked her hand back and jetted to the other side of the street,” Valdes said. “She literally ran!” he said. “I thought this was a good time to try and get a response but I honestly only saw the back of her head as she trotted across the street.”

Guardian Angels founder and radio host Curtis Sliwa also witnessed the exchange and confirmed Valdes’s account.

“As soon as she saw him, she did a pirouette — a spin — and she ran north on Fifth Avenue, ahead of her delegation, just to get away from Rich,” he said.

“I heard Rich yelling after her, ‘OK, AOC. You can run — but you can’t hide!’”

Nancy Sliwa, wife of Curtis, nabbed pictures of it happening just to be sure that the story couldn’t be denied later.

In the spirit of “todos juntos” I tried to politely introduce myself to ⁦@RepAOC⁩ at the Puerto Rican parade where we we both marching, hoping to invite her to debate the issues, but she ran away. 🤷🏻‍♂️#NationalPuertoRicanDayParade #NYC 🇺🇸🇵🇷 https://t.co/URvkoG4uUu — Rich Valdes 🇺🇸 (@RichValdes) June 9, 2019

And deny it she did. AOC’s spokesman Corbin Trent said Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t trying to get away, she was just moving forward quickly with the parade.

“She kept walking! The parade moved! It’s a procession! Give me a break,” he said.

Trent went on to say that Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t owe anybody a debate and that if he does want to debate her then he should run for office. She’ll only debate him then. This is exactly what Valdes plans to do, but Trent said he wishes Valdes good luck against her because she has over 4 million Twitter followers.

It’s unlikely that Ocasio-Cortez will accept any kind of debate, and has denigrated any who have asked her to one in a high-profile way. She accused Ben Shapiro of “catcalling” her when he offered her to debate him.

Just like catcalling, I don’t owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions. And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one. pic.twitter.com/rsD17Oq9qe — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 10, 2018

She also told 2020 presidential hopeful John Delaney to “sashay away” after he challenged her to a debate on the merits of healthcare for all.

Since there’s so many people running for President (& not enough for Senate), instead of obsessing over who‘s a “frontrunner,” maybe we can start w some general eliminations. This awful, untrue line got boo’ed for a full minute. John Delaney, thank you but please sashay away 👋🏽 https://t.co/0RDOwbfcgv — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 2, 2019

Ocasio-Cortez is content to lob Twitter bombs behind the safety of her phone, but will not go so far as to risk her narrative with direct debate. Generally, anyone who is unwilling to expose their ideas to direct criticism is holding beliefs and stances they know to be shaky.

So her physically running from Valdes isn’t at all unbelievable. She does a good deal of figuratively running from other debates as is.