Ben Shapiro snapped back at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for playing the victim card and claiming that he was “catcalling” her when he challenged her to a debate.
The conservative commentator argued that the democratic socialist did not simply say no because she “didn’t want to look like she was afraid.”
“How is what you did, asking her to have an intellectual debate on the actual issues, how is that in any way relevant or similar to a cat call?” Fox News’ Trish Regan asked Shapiro in an interview on Friday, discussing his invitation to the New York congressional candidate to debate.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to Shapiro’s request a day later.
“Just like catcalling, I don’t owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions,” she tweeted. “And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one.”
“Catcalling must be very weird in Queens,” Shapiro responded to Regan’s question. “I don’t know, construction workers standing on street corners and shouting to women ‘hey baby, wanna have an hour-long public conversation about trade policies?'”
The editor-in-chief for The Daily Wire accused those “on the left” of using a “defense in which anybody who requests a discussion or a debate must be evil by their very nature.”
“I’m a man, therefore I’m catcalling her even though, as an orthodox Jew, I have never cat-called a woman in my entire life,” Shapiro went on. “It’s catcalling I guess because if I suggest that I want to have a conversation, I’m demanding a response. Well, every request is a request. All she had to say here is ‘nah.’ That would have been fine. She’s got that prerogative.”
“So is she just playing that victim card?” Regan asked.
“No question. And the fact that she feels the necessity to go to this particular card, right? To play the ‘I’m a female and therefore I’m being victimized. This is like catcalling.’ The fact she goes there instead of saying ‘I’m not interested in debate,'” Shapiro replied.
“The reason she didn’t say latter is because she didn’t want to look like she was afraid,” he added. “The minute somebody says ‘You know what? I’m willing to have a discussion or a debate with you and not only that, just to make it worth your time I’ll give money to your charity or campaign,’ then it’s catcalling if you suggest such a thing. It’s pretty amazing.”
Shapiro didn’t think there was “a lot of upside for her” to agree to the debate, anyway.
“I mean, if she were to get into a discussion with somebody who asks her tough questions, I don’t think she has the information or the philosophy at her disposal to actually answer those questions well,” Shapiro said. “And she knows that, which is why her best move here would have been either to just ignore or to say no. And then everybody would’ve moved on with their life.”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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