New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) said she was proud of her humble roots as she delivered a speech at the National Action Network convention on Friday.
“I’m proud to be a bartender,” the self-proclaimed democratic socialist said. “Ain’t nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with working retail.”
{mosads}“There’s nothing wrong with working retail, folding clothes for other people to buy,” she continued. “There is nothing wrong with preparing the food that your neighbors will eat. There is nothing wrong with driving the buses that take your family to work.”
“There is nothing wrong with being a working person in the United States of America and there is everything dignified about it,” the New York Democrat said.
“I, in fact, am encouraged when people remind the country of my past, not because of anything about my story, but because it communicates that if I could work in a restaurant and become a member of the United States Congress, so can you,” she added.
Earlier this week, President Trump took aim at Ocasio-Cortez, referring to the freshman lawmaker as a “young bartender” as he pleaded with Republicans not to kill her proposed Green New Deal resolution so he can run against it in 2020.
“The Green New Deal done by a young bartender, 29 years old,” the president said at a fundraising dinner for the National Republican Congressional Committee on Tuesday.
“A young bartender, wonderful young woman, the Green New Deal. The first time I heard it I said, ‘That’s the craziest thing,’” he added.