During an interview with Anderson Cooper for CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) addressed concerns with her lack of knowledge on the facts by brushing it off as not a big deal.
The newly-sworn in congresswoman explained people are “more concerned” with being factually correct than they are about “being morally right,” arguing “they are missing the forest for the trees.”
“One of the criticisms of you is that your math is fuzzy. The Washington Post recently awarded with you four Pinocchios for misstating some statistics about Pentagon spending.” Cooper posed to Ocasio-Cortez.
She replied, “If people really want to blow up one figure here or one word there, I would argue they are missing the forest for the trees. I think there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually and semantically correct than about being morally right.”
“But being factually correct is important,” Cooper responded.
“It’s absolutely important,” she added. “And whenever I make a mistake, I say ‘OK, this was clumsy.’ And then I restate what my point was. But it’s not the same thing as the president lying about immigrants.”
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