Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume compared Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to a child during Tucker Carlson's show on Tuesday night, calling her "adorable."
Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat and the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has complained about facing sexism from critics and opponents since winning her district.
"She's kinda compelling," Hume told Carlson. "She's kinda adorable in the sort of way that a 5-year-old child can be adorable. And she is, for the moment I think it's fair to say, the de facto leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives."
Hume said Ocasio-Cortez, 29, has "completely eclipsed" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, by acting as the "Pied Piper of the new Democratic caucus," soliciting support for her proposed climate-friendly "Green New Deal" stimulus package.
The Green New Deal is wide-ranging and includes a jobs guarantee for all Americans, heavy investment in clean energy and a commitment to net-zero carbon emissions within 10 years, among other proposals.
The Fox News analyst said that the Green New Deal generates a lot of media headlines and is why Ocasio-Cortez "for all her callowness and arguable shallowness is able to become so prominent. She makes news."
He also said he expected that the "novelty would wear off" after the first few weeks of hype about Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, but "it hasn't."
"She's still the hottest ticket in town, and I think she's got a lot of talent," Hume said. "She's real kind of cheerful and positive and attractive in that sense, and that goes a long way in politics.
"But if this keeps up and she's able to continue to promote these exotic positions and get prominent people and important people to sign on to them, she'll lead that party off a cliff. I don't think there's much doubt."
Shortly after winning her election, Ocasio-Cortez called out a reporter in November who posted a voyeuristic image of the congresswoman-elect to social media and took issue with the clothes she wore, accusing him of "misogyny."
During the same month, Ocasio-Cortez revealed she was directed to a spouses' event on Capitol Hill by someone who assumed she was the wife of a member of Congress. She was also mistaken for an intern.
In January, during an appearance with Lou Dobbs on the Fox Business Network GOP campaign consultant Ed Rollins referred to Ocasio-Cortez as "the little girl" after she proposed a 70 percent marginal tax rate for annual earnings above $10 million.
"If anything, this dude is a walking argument to tax misogyny at 100%," Ocasio-Cortez replied on Twitter at the time.
In a recent interview with The New Yorker, when asked why she is such a focal point of criticism from the GOP, Ocasio-Cortez said: "I am as powerful as a man, and it drives them crazy."
