Ted Cruz

Ocasio-Cortez recently appeared on the podcast It’s Open with Ilana Glazer where she discussed what she described as internalized myths of capitalism, such as assumptions that ultrawealthy people are inherently smarter and more sophisticated than the working class.

“There's a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned," Ocasio-Cortez said. “You can't earn a billion dollars.”

Cruz devoted most of his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz on Monday to challenging that assertion and other comments she has made recently about capitalism and American history.

He recapped his points during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, highlighting her comments that people can’t “earn” a billion dollars.

“I recognize for her, given that she was a bartender, that's probably true, and there is no disrespect to bartenders,” Cruz told Hannity. “Bartenders are an honorable profession, but she went from that to being a government employee and a parasite sucking on the taxpayer.”

Reporter Pablo Manríquez asked Ocasio-Cortez about Cruz’s comments and posted on X a clip of her response, in which she accused Cruz of holding disdain for working-class Americans such as waitresses and line cooks.

“He thinks that because he has a Harvard degree and never scrubbed a table, that that makes him better than someone who's actually had to work for a living,” she said.

She added it’s “funny” Cruz has collected a government paycheck for so many years “but has the audacity to criticize someone who has come from a family that had to work their way up and earn their place here.”

In January 2021, Ocasio-Cortez posted on social media about the need for hearings to investigate stock manipulation and Cruz responded by reposting it with the statement “fully agree.”

“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out,” she posted at the time.

Cruz has often talked up his own humble roots, including how his father came to the United States from Cuba with next to nothing. Cruz also talked about mowing lawns as a teenager.

He speaks often of Trump’s populist influence on the GOP, which Cruz says has helped transform the party into one of truck drivers and waitresses. He helped push through an idea Trump promoted on the campaign trail to exempt tips from federal taxes.

During his appearance on Hannity, Cruz stuck up for the wealthy, pointing to Henry Ford’s creation of the Model T and Elon Musk’s work on electric, self-driving cars and rockets.

“These left-wing zealots say if you are successful, if you are producing, if you are creative, you are bad,” Cruz said. “We want to take everything from you, and we want to put a bunch of Washington politicians in charge of your life.”