Vice President J.D. Vance opened his remarks at a Board of Peace event Thursday with a pointed joke about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), referencing her recent appearance at the Munich Security Conference, as reported by The Gateway Pundit.

Vance’s comments came after President Donald Trump criticized the New York congresswoman during his own remarks, telling attendees that she was “unable to answer questions” during her overseas appearance.

Taking the stage, Vance began by acknowledging the President.

“Thank you, Mr. President, very much for your leadership, but also for the kind words about me, personally,” Vance said.

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“I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but then, after the President said that I was so smart and that I didn’t want to repeat our Congresswoman who froze for 20 seconds over in Munich, now I’m tempted, sir, just to freeze for 20 seconds and just stare at the cameras, and maybe they’ll say nice things about me, like they do about Congresswoman Cortez.”

The audience of foreign representatives responded as Vance transitioned into his prepared remarks.

“But I have three very brief messages. First of all, to the to the President of the United States, but to the entire team, to Marco, to Steve, to Jared, in particular, who have done such an incredible job,” he continued.

“I think what this board of peace represents is a recognition that if you actually have a President of the United States and a team that’s committed to diplomacy, it can actually work.”

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The exchange followed comments made earlier by President Trump at the same event. Referring to Ocasio-Cortez’s performance at the Munich Security Conference, Trump said:

“There was one young, attractive woman, she was unable to answer questions, and she didn’t do so well like JD did in college.”

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At issue were Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks when she was asked whether the United States should commit troops to defend Taiwan against China.

“Um, you know, I think that, uh, this is such a, uh, you know, I — I think that this is a, umm, this is of course a, uh, a very longstanding, um, policy of the United States – uh and I think what we are hoping for is we want to make sure that we never get to that point,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“And we want to make sure that we are moving all of our economic research and global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.”

The Vice President did not return to the subject of Ocasio-Cortez after his opening remarks and proceeded with his speech focused on diplomacy and the administration’s foreign policy approach.

Earlier in the program, President Trump praised Vance’s academic background, noting his degree from Yale Law School, and contrasted it with Ocasio-Cortez’s education.

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