MAGA Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is defending Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against a fellow Republican—after he mocked her for being a bartender.
“She’s like Kamala Harris, but with more bartending experience,” Sen. John Kennedy said on Fox News Saturday.
Luna fired back at Kennedy after the Louisiana Republican mocked AOC.
“I dont agree with a lot @AOC does and I can debate with her on it but to knock her or anyone for being a bartender is not a ‘hit,’ it’s tone deaf,” Luna wrote on Twitter.
The Florida congresswoman, 36, didn’t stop there. “Plenty of people don’t come from political pedigree,” she continued. “Shoot, half of DC spends its time in bars and love the bartenders.”
Kennedy had taken aim at AOC following her speech at the Munich Security Conference, where she accused Trump of ushering in an “age of authoritarianism.”
“The congresswoman is kind of like Vice President Kamala Harris, but with more bartending experience,” Kennedy sneered during his Fox News appearance. He added that AOC “has never been accused of being a policy maven.”
AOC clapped back herself: “My having been a waitress makes me 1000x more qualified to govern on behalf of working people than whatever lifelong politician nonsense you’ve swung from your whole career.”
She finished with a pointed question: “Why should working people vote for you if this is what you think of them?”
Luna—a Trump loyalist and Air Force veteran who just this week was enthusiastically backing the president’s announcement about government-collected alien files—used the moment to pivot to MAGA policy priorities.
“NO TAX ON TIPS AND NO TAX ON OVERTIME is FOR the service industry workers,” she wrote, tagging the 74-year-old Kennedy directly. “Focus on calling out McConnell for BLOCKING THE SAVE ACT. THATS A WIN!”
The rare cross-aisle defense highlights an awkward reality for Republicans pushing “no tax on tips” as a populist economic message: it’s a harder sell when your colleagues are openly sneering at people who work for tips.
Trump had already weighed in on AOC’s Munich speech, posting on Truth Social that she and California Governor Gavin Newsom “were an embarrassment to our Nation” and “made fools of themselves.”
Kennedy’s attack was meant to pile on. Instead, it created a split-screen moment where a MAGA loyalist chose defending a bartender’s dignity over party unity.