On CNN’s “Abby Phillip Gaslighting and Interruption Power Hour”, more commonly known as NewsNight, there was serious firefighting and journalisming underway. The show’s eponymous host covered Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ disastrous gaffe-laden trip to Munich by pretending her most brutal gaffes didn’t happen and deflecting to basic whatabout(Trump)ism. Watch as Phillip lays the foundation by establishing AOC’s first gaffe, and subsequent pouncing:  TONIGHT on the Abby Phillip Gaslighting and Interruption Power Hour: the host cherry-picks AOC's Taiwan stutter for the obligatory "MAGA Pounces on AOC BUT WHAT ABOUT TRUMP'S GAFFES" segment, while completely omitting the more egregious gaffes on Venezuela's location viz the… pic.twitter.com/qjaYqZ1G9s — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 18, 2026 ABBY PHILLIP: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing a wave of criticism for this foreign policy flub at the Munich Security Conference. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FRANCINE LACQUA: Would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China were to move? ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Um. You know, I think that, uh, this is such a- ah-you know, I think that- you know, I think that this is a um-- this is, of course, a very longstanding, um,  policy of the United States. Ah, and I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point. And we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic, research, and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise. PHILLIP: It should come as no surprise MAGA is having a field day with this one. Phillip then proceeded to isolate AOC’s Taiwan gaffe against a series of Trump misstatements and make the segment into a comparison of one versus the other. This was, in fact, a cleanup operation, because the segment willfully omitted AOC’s other, more egregious gaffes from over the weekend. Consider AOC’s attempted refutation of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s acknowledgement of our Western European heritage, specifically as pertains to cowboys and horses: AOC mocks Rubio: "My favorite part is he said cowboys are rooted in Spain. Uhhh, speak to Mexicans & African slaves!" Spain introduced horses to Mexico pic.twitter.com/xHt1jZCoSi — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 15, 2026 How does AOC think the Mexicans got a hold of horses in the first place? A guy by the name of Hernán Cortez brought them over. In other words, Spain.  AOC’s mastery of history would turn out to be as bad as her mastery of geography, as she claimed that Venezuela was below the equator: an ill-conceived applause line to insinuate that Maduro was snatched because he was part of the “Global South:” WATCH: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared to be auditioning for the Oval Office when she jetted off to the Munich Security Conference to address European leaders. She criticized the Trump administration’s arrest of Nicolás Maduro, arguing that while the Venezuelan dictator may… pic.twitter.com/LS5veGUexi — Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) February 17, 2026 Both gaffes, viewed in the aggregate, are far worse than what she said on Taiwan. One presumes that this is why Abby Phillip left them off the segment which ended up a redirect on to Donald Trump.  That’s some peak journalisming right there. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip on Tuesday, February 17th, 2026: ABBY PHILLIP: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing a wave of criticism for this foreign policy flub at the Munich Security Conference. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FRANCINE LACQUA: Would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China were to move? ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Um. You know, I think that, uh, this is such a- ah-you know, I think that- you know, I think that this is a um-- this is, of course, a very longstanding, um,  policy of the United States. Ah, and I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point. And we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic, research, and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise. PHILLIP: It should come as no surprise MAGA is having a field day with this one. TYRUS: Move over, Kamala. AOC just cooked up her own signature word salad on the global stage. BEN SHAPIRO, HOST: She was taking her 2028 bike out for a spin. She hit the embankment. She flipped head over heels and went all the way down the mountain. It's her fault. JESSE WATTERS: After the word salad, AOC froze like a deer in headlights. BENNY JOHNSON: To quote Billy Madison, everyone in this room is now dumber because of that answer. Thank you, AOC. PHILLIP: A flub for AOC, but the question is also: what happens when the president, the actual president of the United States, does very similar things on the world stage? Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP: I watch our police and our firemen down on 7/11 down the World Trade Center. When I told them about Iceland, they loved me. Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. Shifting production to Thailand and to Vietnam. I solve wars that was unsolvable, Azerbaijan and Albania. Miami has been a haven for those fleeing communist tyranny in South Africa. Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient. We all know the great prime minister of the U.K. and we just signed a document. This is -- sorry about that. We just signed it and it's done. And so we have our trade agreement with the European Union. PHILLIP: So, look, I'll give you that AOC probably should have been more ready for that question, but are we going to really pretend that the actual president of the United States has not made similar or perhaps worse flubs on the global stage? JOHN TABACCO: Yes. I don't think we have to pretend. Everyone makes some flubs. We're all T.V. personalities. We have mistakes here and there, but it's interesting that you would play ten consecutive clips of Trump actually saying things. Maybe they may not have been pertinent or taken out of context. PHILLIP: Yes, saying incorrect things. TABACCO: You played one of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which the whole world is still trying to figure out exactly what she was saying. So, you know, the big buzz now is maybe Kamala-AOC 2028. I say bring that on based on that performance right there. LEIGH MCGOWAN: Yes. Listen, stumbling over your words for 15 seconds is not the same as being incoherent or uneducated on foreign policy TABACCO: That was incoherent. MCGOWAN: She had a ton of amazing answers in that same interview, which we are not playing. We are playing in its entirety, ah, um, oh, ah, which we do not do for the president. Personally, I was more interested in the thing she said, where she said, we're entering an age of authoritarianism, where a group is working in tandem to carve up the world into pieces to have served themselves, and the president is interested in taking on the Western Hemisphere. First of all, that seems kind of true to me, but going to the Munich Security Conference and saying that out loud in the world is kind of ballsy, and I liked it. So, a couple of ums before answering a question on Taiwan -- CARI CHAMPION: Not a big deal. MCGOWAN: -- less interesting. TABACCO: She should go to Queens once in a while before she goes to Munich. That would probably help. ANA NAVARRO: She has gone to Queensland a few times and she's -- listen, she doesn't -- she's not a foreign policy expert. TABACCO: Clearly. NAVARRO: And so -- no, she's not. TABACCO: Clearly. KEVIN O'LEARY: You don't say. Come on, give her a break. PHILLIP: Guys, this is -- NAVARRO: You don't even know who's running in Texas. CHAMPION: For five seconds, let somebody finish that thought before you have to be -- NAVARRO: I want to know how you would be able to answer that. Look, I think that it takes a lot of courage and I think for her to expanding her message, for her to be expanding her areas of policy interests are a good thing. She is 1 of 435 members of Congress. There's a lot of them there that don't come with a breadth of foreign policy knowledge. O'LEARY: You're right, she was fabulous. CHAMPION: It's not about her being fabulous. It wasn't -- (CROSSTALK) O'LEARY: Let's say you're hired to give a speech, let's say you're hired because you're expected to deliver information to an audience. Let's say you're even paid for it. When you go and do that, what happens is the agency that hired you, whether it's the government, your own party says that was not your best moment. In fact, they tied you back to Kamala Harris. You were so bad, you sounded like her. And, by the way, I'm sorry, it's not a partisan issue. She was terrible. Get over it. Maybe she would get better. (CROSSTALK) CHAMPION: No. But the reality is if you take just a minute and not be condescending, I really believe what she was -- O'LEARY: I'm trying to help her, lift her up -- CHAMPION: One moment. You had your moment. You had your moment. PHILLIP: Kevin, just let her respond. CHAMPION: The reality is -- O'LEARY: They always more moments. That's what's great about it. CHAMPION: The reality is, Kevin, is that she was taking a beat and, yes, she wasn't great for less than 20 seconds, if you ask me. But I thought she was doing something that the president of the United States rarely does, and that's think before she speaks. She was trying to get her words together so she knew how to handle it appropriately. O'LEARY: It's not partisan. CHAMPION: And if people did that, we wouldn't be in this situation that we're in right now. PHILLIP: Let me ask you -- PHILLIP: Everyone stop talking please for just a moment. Stop talking. Thank you. John and Kevin, you all are strongly criticizing AOC for making flubs. O'LEARY: She was terrible. That's why. PHILLIP: All right. We just played several bites here. Okay. Let me -- hold on. He stood next to someone from the E.U. and called them the Prime Minister of the U.K., okay? He called South Africa -- South America -- he called South America, South Africa. He called Greenland, Iceland. NAVARRO: He called you Namibia, Nambia. PHILLIP: So, my question to you is, okay, bad answers, bad answers. What do you think should happen to Donald Trump as a result of his bad answer? O'LEARY: AOC wants to become the president, the United States, he already is. PHILLIP: Okay. So -- O'LEARY: So, he's not worried about running again. PHILLIP: So, what are you saying? O'LEARY: She's trying to become president. PHILLIP: So, what are you saying? That it's okay, no consequences because he's already president? O'LEARY: No, I'm just saying that moment was not her best and I, above all of the rest of you, I am encouraging her to say, listen, watch the tape, don't do that again, or you'll be prepared to what word salad girl in the last election. PHILLIP: What about Donald Trump in 2024 said, I think Taiwan should pay us for defense? O'LEARY: Yes, but I'm sorry, it's not working, Abby. PHILLIP: I don't we are any different from any insurance policy. O'LEARY: She was terrible. Let's focus on her. PHILLIP: Hey, he was running for president at that time. O'LEARY: Let's lift her up. Let's help her. PHILLIP: He says, I don't think we are any different from an insurance policy, why are we doing this, when he was asked if the United States would defend Taiwan. O'LEARY: Well, what does that have to do with her performance? PHILLIP: So, even on the sub -- TABACCO: (INAUDIBLE) Trump, that MAGA is having a field day and now we make some comments, which you were all thinking in your head and now you're getting mad at us for having a field day. We deserve it. PHILLIP: John, hey, I'm just asking for you all to apply the same standard -- TABACCO: I think he makes mistakes all the time and I crack and laugh, just like I cracked up at Joe Biden when he made mistakes. It happens. MCGOWAN: When you're not cracking up when the woman's laughing, you're mocking her. You're saying she's on - TABACOO: I'm cracking up when I see her because she's not even forming sentences. MCGOWAN: And then you're comparing her to the other strong women who ran. TABACCO: She's not giving like a wrong fact or wrong name. She's not -- MCGOWAN: But when women make a gaffe, they're monsters and should never be invited back. NAVARRO: You know what one of the differences is though when Trump makes these mistakes as president, he's actually reading from things that people supposedly experts on these issues have written. AOC was beyond her skis, I think, in a place that is a new horizon for her. O'LEARY: Don't say that. NAVARRO: Enough, Kevin, you're so damn repetitive. PHILLIP: Kevin, please stop. Let her finish her thought. NAVARRO: And, you know, she can't -- I mean, Donald Trump can't read a script. She was answering an impromptu question of something that she's not an expert in, and she's there making -- you know, making mistakes and learning from them. Listen, I'm old enough to remember when George W. Bush was running for president, and they asked him about the guy running Pakistan, what was his name? And he kept saying General, General, General, because he couldn't remember the guy's name. PHILLIP: An iconic moment in American history. NAVARRO: Yes, and he went on to become president.