Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) fired back at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after he branded her a “parasite” for receiving a government paycheck and suggesting that billionaires couldn’t have earned all their money.
“I recognize for her –– given that she was a bartender –– that’s probably true, and there is no disrespect to bartenders,” Cruz told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “Bartenders are an honorable profession. But she went from that to being a government employee and a parasite sucking on the taxpayer.”
The progressive firebrand hit back at Cruz’s comments while taking shots at the senator’s Ivy League education, suggesting it gave him a warped perspective of the average American.
“It’s not a secret the disdain that Ted Cruz has for people who work working-class jobs. It’s not a secret what he thinks of the waitresses, the line cooks — he thinks that we’re less than him,” Ocasio-Cortez told journalist Pablo Manríquez outside the Capitol on Tuesday. “He thinks that because he has a Harvard degree and never scrubbed a table, that that makes him better than someone who has actually had to work for a living.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who has been touted as a potential 2028 Democratic candidate for president, made the billionaire comments on the podcast “It’s Open with Ilana Glazer” last Thursday.
