Jill Biden Is Sorry She Called Latinos ‘As Unique As Breakfast Tacos’

SAN ANTONIO, TX — She didn’t. Oh, yes, she did. And it’s stinging so much First lady Jill Biden may just as well have fallen head first into a vat of chili sauce with her eyes wide open.

Biden was speaking Monday at the UnidosUS conference in San Antonio. It’s the largest Latino advocacy group in the world, and its members include an important voter base for her husband and other Democrats. The first lady might have come up with a more elegant metaphor to describe the rich diversity in Latino culture.

Instead, in a speech praising UnidosUS and longtime leader, Raul Yzaguirre, this fell out of Biden’s mouth:

“Raul helped build this organization with the understanding that the diversity of this community, as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio, is your strength.”

The first lady apologized Tuesday through her press secretary, who tweeted Biden’s regret “that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community.”

But by then, Biden already had been thoroughly skewered.

“We are not tacos,” the National Associate of Hispanic Journalists said in a statement on Twitter.

“Using breakfast tacos to try to demonstrate the uniqueness of Latinos in San Antonio demonstrates a lack of cultural knowledge and sensitivity to the diversity of Latinos in the region,” the group stated, encouraging the first lady and her staff to take the time to “better understand the complexities of our people & communities.”

Republicans had a picnic.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio posted a picture of a taco on Twitter with the hashtag #NewProfilePic. Steve Guest, an adviser to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted, “Which White House speechwriter just won a bet for getting the First Lady to say something like this?” And from the Republican National Committee tweeted, “She actually said this.”

Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs may have been glad to see attention focused anywhere but the Jan. 6 capitol riot hearings, where testimony Tuesday focused on a December 2020 meeting with then President Donald Trump, where he and 10 other House Republicans plotted strategy to overthrow the 2020 election.

Biggs, appearing on Fox News, said the Biden history has a long history of making racially or ethnically charged remarks. “Jill Biden’s remarks referring to Latinos as tacos is yet another cringe moment by a Biden family member failing to relate to anyone they perceive to not have their same elite social status,” he said.

Biggs took note not only of Biden’s metaphor but also her mispronunciation of “bodegas,” and said it’s “no wonder Hispanics are fleeing the Democratic Party!”

Not everyone was offended.

People in San Antonio knew what she meant, a fellow by the name of Gus Espinosa tweeted, noting, “We are proud of our breakfast tacos and often say we have the best. This is an example of her using colloquial language to connect with the audience.”

San Antonio, where 65 percent of residents are Latino, is known for its Mexican cuisine, and especially its breakfast tacos which José R. Ralat, the taco editor at Texas Monthly and author of “American Tacos: A History and Guide” told NBC News are “as synonymous with San Antonio as the Alamo or the Spurs,”

“She’s just saying we are proud of our food in San Antonio. We are proud of our breakfast tacos, our barbacoa and Big Red,” Lawrence Romo, 65, a Democratic activist who headed the Selective Service System in the Obama administration, told NBC. “They are part of our culture here.”

Janet Murguía, the CEO of UnidosUS, forgave Biden’s gaffe, too.

“So honored to host @FLOTUS at our Annual Conference today in San Antonio," Murguía tweeted. "She has been a great educator in, and a great amiga to, our community for years. Privileged to call her a friend.”