AOC tells massive crowd in Utah that working Americans are ‘more qualified’ than most in Congress

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tore into her fellow members of Congress, accusing them of being out of touch with the American people and simply “unqualified” for the job at hand.

The Democratic firebrand spoke to a charged crowd of over 20,000 people alongside Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in Salt Lake City on Sunday. The pair took the stand in multiple locations over the weekend as part of Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to protest against President Donald Trump’s administration.

The New York 14th congressional district representative attacked Utah Senator’s Mike Lee and John Curtis for voting in favour of the newly enforced Trump tax cuts — which looks to pare down the budget deficit by at least $1.5 trillion, reportsPolitico.

Yet, AOC drilled down during her speech on the ulterior motives of Republican’s, accusing them of buttressing the lives of billionaire’s at the expense of working class people.

“They know Utah that that’s not what you want. They know that it is deeply unpopular. They know, that it hurts working families from Utah but they know that they are not there to serve the working class,” she let off in her diatribe.

“They are there to serve themselves and the billionaire’s who paid them,” she added.

She explained that behind the one-sided Republican agenda lies a dark blueprint for stoking “deep divisions along race, identity, and culture” — surmising that it was all part of a distraction policy.

“Donald Trump is not an aberration. He is the logical, inevitable conclusion of an American political system dominated by corporate and dark money.”

Crucially, she said it was necessary to defeat Trump by “defeating the system that created him.”

However, AOC said the state of affairs in Congress was dire while speaking about her own experiences of growing up in a working class immigrant family during the 2008 economic crash.

When her father died of cancer, AOC said she was left with no other choice but to work as a waitress to support her mother with her late-father’s crippling healthcare bills and the economic repercussions at the time.

“Not a single one of them went to jail,” she said while speaking about the major players of the financial crisis who managed to avoid jail time despite taking excessive financial risks and subsequently plunging the world into a global recession.

Kareem Serageldin, formerly of Credit Suisse, was the only trader to be convicted. He was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in 2013.

"That is the story that Republicans tell— not mine, but all of ours — when they say a waitress or a working person is unqualified to serve in Congress. But the truth is, many of us are far more qualified to understand what real life is actually like than any of them ever will."

Cortez explained that her anecdote was important to relay, as it resonated with so many other working class American’s now grappling with the cost of living.

“We don’t have to live like this anymore, Utah. We can make a new world, a better country, where we can fight for the dignity of all people,” she cried.

“And it looks like living wages Utah, it looks like stable housing, Utah, it looks like guaranteed healthcare Salt Lake City and it looks like respect for all of our differences no matter who we are or where we come from.”

The New York Rep. will appear alongside Sanders in Nampa, Idaho, Monday for the next leg of the Senator’s tour, which promotes the political mantra of “Democracy over Oligarchy.”

They will then continue on to California and Montana.