A for effort…?
Anea Garcia, Miss Rhode Island, was vying for the Miss USA crown last night during the annual beauty pageant when she found herself in a bit of a pickle.
Despite presumably years and years of experience onstage, the stunner was completely stumped during the Q&A portion of the event.
Tara Conner delivered the brain-busting question, which asked, "Recently, comedian Jerry Seinfeld spoke out against political correctness in our culture. Do you think political correctness is helping or hurting this country? And why?"
OK, Anea, breathe, smile, smile bigger, larger, better, smize so hard you can't see straight, and begin to answer by saying…
"That's a very good question." Nailed it! That's a prerequisite to any and allpageant answers, well done.
Spoiler: That's basically the moment in the evening when Rhode Island's luck takes an epic downturn.
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"I think that it's a balance of both…we definitely need," she adds before completely clamming up and asking, "I'm sorry. Will you please repeat the question once more?"
Conner promptly repeats the head-scratcher, and Garcia goes in for the kill once more (because if it at first you don't succeed, dust your ballgown off and try again).
"I think it's a balance of both," she reiterates with a hint of confidence. "We need the people to remind us—especially the politicians to remind us—what to do right and what to do wrong and it's never…"
And just like that, her time was up, and one of the show's co-hosts gleefully interrupted her rambling answer by shouting, "Time's up! Thanks so much, Rhode Island!"
Better luck next time!