Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been called a “bimbo” by a Texas politician, who later deleted the tweet and his Twitter account, Huffington Post is reporting. Republican Scott Dunn made the slur in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s criticism of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
The criticism took place last week after Ocasio-Cortez responded to a tweet about her apparent lack of enthusiasm during Donald Trump’s speech compared to the “spirited and warm” reaction from other members of Congress. The freshman New York representative refused to apologize in a tweet of her own.
“Why should I be “spirited and warm” for this embarrassment of a #SOTU?”
Dunn, a city councilman in Richardson, responded with the slur.
“The embarrassment is to have bimbos like you with nothing between your ear [sic].”
According to Urban Dictionary , a “bimbo” is a “curvaceous but frivolous young woman, whose IQ is no match for her vital statistics.” First used in 1919 to describe dimwitted males, as insults go, the term is generally considered pretty mild.
Nevertheless, Dunn later admitted to the Dallas Morning News that he made a mistake in using the term.
“The words I used were offensive. I am responsible for my own words and actions. I apologize to anyone who finds what I said offensive.”
Dunn has since deleted the tweet as well as his entire Twitter and Facebook accounts. Huffington Post notes that some Facebook users publicly doubted the sincerity of Dunn’s apology before he deleted his accounts.
Meanwhile, Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker said in a statement that he was “extremely disappointed and embarrassed” by Dunn’s tweet, and said that words like that, directed towards women, do not represent the “values” of Richardson. And at least one Twitter user pointed out that the Richardson city council positions are supposedly nonpartisan, yet Dunn made an intensely partisan statement.
Dunn is not the first Republican to use the word “bimbo” to describe a female adversary. Donald Trump himself famously used the term to describe Megyn Kelly in 2015. Trump has similarly referred to certain women as “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs,” and “disgusting animals.”
Ocasio-Cortez has not been immune to puerile name-calling since she announced her candidacy for the House of Representatives. For example, Republican political strategist and campaign consultant Ed Rollins last month called her a “little girl” with a big mouth. Similarly, Huffington Post writer Mary Papenfuss wrote that Twitter trolls “relentlessly” attack Ocasio-Cortez for her appearance.
As of this writing, Ocasio-Cortez has not responded to Dunn’s statements about her.
