Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blamed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for a sudden increase of illegal immigrants entering the U.S., claiming that his sanctions against the socialist dictatorship in Venezuela caused the surge.

AOC made the remarks during a Sunday interview with CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation” when asked to further elaborate on her recent remarks that she believes “immigration is arguably [the Biden] Administration’s weakest issue.”

The congresswoman responded by claiming former President Donald Trump “dramatically inflamed” the issue. She then pivoted to saying 500,000 Venezuelans who recently flooded into the U.S. needed to be given a pathway to citizenship because that would “reduce the strain on our public systems,” and went on to blame Rubio.

“I think we also need to examine the root of this problem, because if we are constantly engaging in foreign policy that drives people to our southern border in this specific instance, U.S. sanctions that were originally authored by Marco Rubio began and precipitated certainly took a large part in the driving of populations to our southern border shortly after those sanctions, those broad-based sanctions … we started seeing dramatic increases in these populations that were coming to our southern border,” she said. “And so we have to address the root of these population movements and the migration crisis. And we have to also have to address the domestic U.S. policy issues when it comes to immigration reform.”

Brennan pushed back, noting that dictator Nicolas Maduro, who has been president of Venezuela since 2013, was “responsible for large parts of that.”

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Ocasio-Cortez said that the U.S. should “reexamine” the sanctions it has placed on the oppressive regime and, when asked, would not answer whether President Joe Biden should go to the border or whether she would go to the border.

AOC also claimed that allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States was “not what is driving millions of people” to come to America.

WATCH:

President Joe Biden fumbled LL Cool J’s name before calling the rapper “boy” at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation event on Saturday.

“LL J Cool J, uhh, by the way, that boy’s got — that man’s got biceps bigger than my thighs,” Biden said during the 2023 Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C.

Biden made the comment as he described LL Cool J, who was born with the name James Todd Smith, and MC Lyte as “two of the great artists of our time” who represent the “groundbreaking legacy” of hip hop in the United States.

BIDEN: "LL J Cool J, uhh, by the way, that boy's got— that man's got biceps bigger than my thighs" pic.twitter.com/ulCQRkEp0l

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 24, 2023

Biden has employed the word “boy” in the past, which has gotten him into trouble with the black community in particular.

In 2019, during the last presidential cycle, Biden was criticized for what he said about working with well-known segregationists in the Senate and finding room for civility. In talking about Sen. James O. Eastland (D-MS), who was often referred to as the “Voice of the White South,” Biden said, “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a black man who was running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, was among those who rebuked Biden, saying, “You don’t joke about calling black men ‘boys.'”

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Biden defended himself, saying, “There’s not a racist bone in my body,” and even called on Booker to apologize. Biden later conceded that he understood the “consequence” of the word but denied that he said it “in any of that context.”

Earlier this year, Biden referred to Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore, also a black man, as “boy” while commenting on his physical appearance as a former college football player.

“You got a hell of a new governor in Wes Moore, I tell you,” Biden said during a speech in Maryland. “He’s the real deal. And the boy looks like he can still play. He got some guns on him.”

Biden is well known for making gaffes over the years, but those concerns have risen of late as he seeks a second term in the White House, fueled by the president’s age (80), his tendency to lose his train of thought while speaking, and moments caught on camera where he has tripped or fallen over.