Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt said Tuesday that former Vice President Joe Biden has “gone through the time machine and transgendered into” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), suggesting Ocasio-Cortez now fills the “Biden gap” of “people who will say outlandish things.”
“Biden has actually gone through the time machine and transgendered into Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Hewitt, an MSNBC contributor, said on the “Hugh Hewitt Show” on The Salem Radio Network, as first noted by Media Matters.
{mosads}Hewitt made the comment after reacting to Ocasio-Cortez’s recent statement that global warming and its effects were this generation’s “World War II.”
Hewitt mocked the comparison, saying that he’s reminded of the game Mad Libs when Ocasio-Cortez speaks.
“I would just love to talk — oh, I would love to talk to her,” he said. “Any — just a long extended conversation where the word salad doesn’t hold up. It wilts in the heat. Not hardball, just keep talking.”
He later added that Ocasio-Cortez was his “favorite person” in America, before saying that Biden had “transgendered” into her.
“This was Joe Biden — she’s going to fill the Biden gap,” he concluded. “The Biden gap concerned me. Some day Joe will leave the public stage and we will not have people who will say outlandish things. But now the Biden gap is filled.”
After news outlets picked up on the comment, Hewitt apologized on Twitter, calling it a “bad word choice on a sensitive subject.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who became the youngest female member of Congress earlier this month, on Monday called for taking action to combat climate change while speaking at the MLK Now event in New York City.
Among other things, she said that “the world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” She doubled down on the assertion on Tuesday, saying that “young people understand that climate change is an existential threat.”
“For some reason GOP seems to think this is a gaffe, but it’s actually a generational difference,” she said.
Hewitt, a former MSNBC host, announced in June that his MSNBC program would come to an end. He noted at the time that he would remain on the network as a commentator and appear as a guest on MSNBC shows.