Sen. Cruz Criticizes Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s Billionaire Remarks

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) expressed strong disapproval on Monday regarding Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her recent statements about billionaires.

“Well, there’s a village somewhere that doesn’t have idiots,” Cruz commented on his podcast “Verdict.” He labeled her remarks as “strangely stupid and very ideological.”

Cruz was particularly taking aim at Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that billionaires, such as Elon Musk, didn’t “earn” their wealth and instead “abused” the system.

Ocasio-Cortez stated, “I’m not going to make a billion dollars. You can have market power. You can break the rules. You can do anything. You can abuse labor laws. You can pay people less than they’re worth. But you can’t earn it, can you? So you have to create a myth… You have to create a myth that you can earn it.”

After facing pushback, she maintained her stance, suggesting that the American Revolutionary War was fought against “the billionaires of the day.”

“I want to talk about how this is our nation’s heritage,” she added, citing Thomas Jefferson’s writings as a rebellion against British aristocracy. “The American Revolution was against the billionaires of the day, and we are proclaiming our independence from the extreme marriage of wealth and power and a state where the voice of everyday people is absent.”

Cruz, who came under fire after Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks gained traction on social media, elaborated on her views, explaining that many wealthy figures of that era actually supported the Revolutionary War. “No one ever saved a billion dollars, but the richest people in America are the ones who financed and supported revolutions against government power,” he said. He accused Ocasio-Cortez of distorting history, arguing that the revolution was about defending American free enterprise rather than turning against it.

He cautioned her about the risks associated with communism, warning of its historical consequences. “AOC, I don’t think she knows the facts, but everywhere her system of governance, communism, has been implemented, the results have been devastating: poverty, hunger, suffering, and misery,” Cruz stated. “That’s also true in terms of human rights, murder, torture, imprisonment, and in China, at least in concentration camps.”

Ocasio-Cortez later countered her critics, asserting that the primary form of theft in America is wage theft, leading to $50 billion lost from American workers annually. “Some people get angry when I draw attention to this, and that’s their fault,” she remarked. “These people will say anything to distract from or hurt the truth that working people are being hurt. Giving people a fair shake means we have to have adult conversations about governing abuses of power.”