This particular Twitter spat started Thursday with AOC taking a shot at Project Veritas. Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe responded to that by pointing to a letter dated May in which he explained why he had decided to accept the loan, i.e. to protect the salaries of his 50 employees:

We did not CHOOSE to have our employees, working families, livelihoods jeopardized by @NYGovCuomo shutdown.

We operate without fear or favor. We Will NEVER bow to political pressure from you, NYState or the feds. We do not prostitute ourselves to a commercial imperative.#Gulag pic.twitter.com/rLHoFUdOrk

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) December 3, 2020

Of course, helping small businesses meet their payrolls is what the PPP loans were designed to do, but for AOC the desire to punish the right always takes precedence I guess. In any case, Sen. Marco Rubio responded to her tweet with this bit of advice:

Working together R’s & D’s helped save the jobs of 55 million Americans through PPP

Work more, tweet less & one day you too can make a difference https://t.co/WprW5OR9LP

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 3, 2020

These PPP loans were part of the CARES Act which was passed back in March. AOC denounced that bill on the House floor and then voted against it. It’s actually a bit hard to pin down how Members of Congress voted in this case because the bill was passed by a voice vote. But the Intercept went back and tried to nail down how every person voted and they gave AOC a definite NO based on statements she made in an interview with Democracy Now after the vote. Here’s what she said: “I could not bring myself to ultimately support this bill, because I believe that people will soon see the extraordinary asymmetrical assistance that went to corporations.”

AOC knew this was going to pass almost almost unanimously and since it was a voice vote no vote was recorded, but she said she did not support the bill and would have voted against it if votes had been recorded. That’s why Sen. Rubio may be hitting her about R’s & D’s working together, because she wasn’t part of that. AOC then replied to Sen. Rubio with this:

Yesterday I recruited 5,000 volunteers to train and tutor kids in my community who are struggling with remote learning, and that was after investigating the Treasury Secretary’s rationale for stopping CARES Act funding and voting on House legislation.

What did you do? https://t.co/Ytkq6qZKiI

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 3, 2020

Sen. Rubio did respond to that tweet the next morning:

Apologies for late response

Was busy this week helping a Floridian get travel documents to see his dying sister,a high schooler whose mother died get SSI benefits,a specialist for a child with a crazy Obamacare deductible & negotiating Intelligence bill & another round of PPP https://t.co/HlsFeQHp3m

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 4, 2020

But getting back to Thursday, this seemed to really bother AOC and she kept tweeting about it, specifically about how much tougher she is than Republicans:

The thing that these conservative Senators don’t seem to understand is that I’ve actually had a physically difficult working-class job without good healthcare most of my adult life.

I bring that work ethic to Congress & to my community. They sit around on leather chairs all day.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 3, 2020

Ben Shapiro had a question about her lack of good healthcare. Keep in mind she worked as a waitress after she graduated college in 2011:

Obamacare became law in May 2010, when she was 20. https://t.co/qJsX2dHQoh

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 4, 2020

Anyway she kept going about how her work as a waitress proved how tough she was and how Republicans in her shoes would have crumbled:

Republicans like to make fun of the fact that I used to be a waitress, but we all know if they ever had to do a double they’d be the ones found crying in the walk-in fridge halfway through their first shift bc someone yelled at them for bringing seltzer when they wanted sparkling

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 4, 2020

For the record, I don’t think Republicans are really making fun of the fact she was a waitress. I think they’re making fun of the fact that the former waitress now seems to think she’s qualified to remake America into a socialist paradise. I don’t think anyone is saying she’s not qualified to serve drinks.

Friday, Sarah Palin stepped in and absolutely hammered AOC as part of the every-kid-gets-a-trophy generation:

With babies to care for, elderly parents to tend to, businesses to run, voluntarily helping others, working second- and third jobs, etc without whining and drawing the self-attention for which you’re known?

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) December 4, 2020

You’re not special, Representative. To magnanimously think you’re set aside deserving a seat of judgment SOLELY bc you temporarily slung shots proves that condescending woe-is-me entitlement thinking is what happens when every kid gets a trophy.

-SP

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) December 4, 2020

Rep. Paul Mitchell also responded to AOC’s tweet about wimpy Republicans collapsing from a double shift:

This comment is ridiculous stereotyping. I delivered newspapers year-round on foot or on my bike for several years. Worked numerous doubles in Respiratory Therapy where a mistake could result in death. Worked nearly full time to pay for college. What do I not understand? https://t.co/uRwehFzd5L

— Paul Mitchell (@RepPaulMitchell) December 5, 2020

AOC never apologizes, she only lectures more stridently:

Forever telling on yourselves.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 5, 2020

She just kept going:

These Republicans who are defensively rage-tweeting “But you’re wrong! I worked my way to pay through college!!” don’t realize they sound like folks who speak of the days when Hershey bars were 5¢ at the general store.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 5, 2020

(Frankly they’ve exploded for far longer than that too)

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 5, 2020

Of course plentiful government loans played a role in the rising costs of college but she doesn’t mention that. Plenty of people were pointing out that it’s still possible to work your way through college:

Yep. My son got an aerospace engineering degree 3 years ago, worked while in school and paid his loans off within 2 years of graduating after getting a job. Now working on a masters that his company is paying for.

— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) December 5, 2020

But while some people are thinking others are doing this:

Same here! AOC is a force and I'd love to see her as President one day. 👍

— Rice Krispy Tweets (@kristirice47) December 5, 2020

So there you have it. AOC was a hard working waitress and no Republican could have done her job. I think that’s really how she sees it. And for the record, waitressing really is hard work but it’s not the only hard work. I worked as a mason tender one summer during college to make money. The crew I was on helped build the Student Center at Virginia Tech. What I can tell you is that lifting bricks 11 at a time onto scaffolding and mixing concrete by hand in the summer sun is hard work. I can still remember the masons calling out “Shake up!” It was the hardest physical work I’ve ever done in my life but I did not collapse in tears in a walk-in freezer (though a walk-in freezer would have been handy). Lots of us have worked hard at various things and AOC’s assumption that Republicans don’t know what that’s like is offensive and dumb.