Ocasio-Cortez responds to report that Trump compared her to Eva Perón

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) responded Sunday to reports President Trump compared to her to Eva Perón with a quote from the former Argentine First Lady.

“I know that, like every woman of the people, I have more strength than I appear to have,” the New York representative tweeted, linking to New York Post coverage of the remark.

“I know that, like every woman of the people, I have more strength than I appear to have.”

– Evita Perón https://t.co/IH7y7C54ip

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 7, 2019

She followed the tweet up with another Perón quote, “I had watched for many years and seen how a few rich families held much of Argentina’s wealth and power in their hands. So the government brought in an eight hour working day, sickness pay and fair wages to give poor workers a fair go.”

In an interview with Politico’s Tim Alberta for Alberta’s forthcoming book “American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War,” Trump claimed he first saw Ocasio-Cortez on television campaigning against then-Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) during the 2018 primary “ranting and raving like a lunatic on a street corner.”

“I called her Eva Perón,” Trump told Alberta. “I said, ‘That’s Eva Perón. That’s Evita.’”

Trump went on to say that the freshman representative “knows nothing” but “has real potential.”

Trump did not mention Ocasio-Cortez by name immediately following her upset primary victory, only mentioning Crowley and suggesting he lost because he was not “nicer, and more respectful, to his President.”

Trump is a longtime fan of “Evita,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical based on Perón’s life, and wrote in a 2004 book that he had seen it six times. Perón, who was born into poverty before becoming an actress, married Juan Perón two years before he was elected president and, as first lady, became known as a champion of working-class causes.