I know it’s racist to call LeBron James dumb, but what about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

The New York Democratic congressional candidate got at least some real questions during an interview this week on CNN. If weren’t for Ocasio-Cortez being an attractive minority, the rest of the media would be calling her the next Sarah Palin.

Democrats, if they’re ethnic and look good on TV, typically get one question from the press: “Are you running for president?”

It’s the sole reason Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey are considered “top contenders” for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

But even after the mostly breezy interview on Wednesday with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the New York Times should transition from describing Ocasio-Cortez as a “political rock star” to “kind of slow.”

Cuomo asked Ocasio-Cortez basic questions about her political positions, like whether she supported Rep. Nancy Pelosi for House speaker — “We gotta take a look at what’s going on," Ocasio-Cortez said — and how the U.S. would pay for multitrillion-dollar universal healthcare, to which she questioned why we don’t consider “the cost of all the funeral expenses of those who died” because we don’t have universal healthcare.

Instead of asking if Ocasio-Cortez was sober, Cuomo simply nodded along thoughtfully.

For reasons unknown, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro posted a video on Twitter challenging Ocasio-Cortez to a debate.

Ocasio-Cortez didn’t have to respond, but she went ahead and responded that she didn’t need to respond, while also acting like she had been sexually violated.



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 (@Ocasio2018) August 10, 2018



In addition to this week’s display in brilliance, Ocasio-Cortez has in the not too distant past also claimed that the Defense Department last year got “a $700 billion budget increase, which they didn’t even ask for” (not remotely true) and excused her lack of knowledge about the Israel-Palestine conflict after plodding through a bunch of her own nonsense on “settlements” and “humanitarian conditions.”

This is the person liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg on Thursday described as “charismatic and rousing.”

To each their own, but if the media want to start calling Ocasio-Cortez dumb, I won’t call them racist.