The Associated Press faced backlash on social media Monday after writing that Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke spoke “in his native Spanish” at a rally in El Paso, Texas.
Although O’Rourke speaks Spanish, he a fourth-generation Irish-American whose full name is Robert Francis O’Rouke.
The AP report originally wrote: “O’Rourke also spoke at length in his native Spanish, eliciting loud and sustained cheers.”
This is @AP coverage of the #Beto launch rally. … he “spoke at length in his native Spanish…”
Neato. pic.twitter.com/AOLWRa0I21
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) March 31, 2019
After the criticism, AP appended a correction to its story, reading: “In a story March 31 about a Beto O’Rourke campaign rally, The Associated Press reported erroneously that O’Rourke spoke to a rally in his native Spanish. O’Rourke is not a native Spanish speaker.”
O’Rourke, 46, announced he was running for president in March. He has been a rising star in the Democratic Party since his highly-publicized bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during the 2018 midterm elections. He ended up losing by a closer-than-expected margin but has since used the publicity from the election to catapult him onto the national scene.
