Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Praised for Cohen Questioning, Says Waitressing Honed Her 'Razor Sharp BS Detector'

After receiving praise for her questioning of Michael Cohen during his testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attributed her skills to years spent tending bars and waiting on tables.

The New York Democrat was one of many committee members to question Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, about a number of allegations he made against his former boss.

Ocasio-Cortez, following up on some of the previous lines of questioning, asked Cohen about documents pertaining to American Media's hush money "catch-and-kill" practice and whether Trump had ever provided inflated assets to an insurance company or deflated his assets to reduce his tax bills.

In his response, Cohen suggested that Trump had committed tax fraud, and that the answers would lie in a comparing Trump's financial statements with his tax returns.

The computer scientist Matt Blaze wrote on Twitter: "Are we sure @AOC is a former bartender and not a former prosecutor? That was a pretty amazing line of questions today."

Replying to Blaze, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: "Thanks! Bartending + waitressing (especially in NYC) means you talk to 1000s of people over the years. Forces you to get great at reading people + hones a razor-sharp BS detector.

"Just goes to show that what some consider to be 'unskilled labor' can actually be anything but [winking emoji]."

Among the allegations, Cohen accused Trump of lying about his knowledge of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between his campaign and Russian officials promising "dirt" on his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The president denied knowing in advance about the meeting, which was attended by his ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, oldest son Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. The meeting is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Moreover, Cohen testified that Trump knew in advance about WikiLeaks' publishing emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign by Russian hackers because his friend Roger Stone, who was in contact with the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, had told him in a phone call for which Cohen was present..

Mueller has indicted Stone for making false statements to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks and Assange.

Cohen also called Trump a racist, testifying that the president had told him that black people were "too stupid" to vote for him.

Republican committee members, instead of focusing on evidence, sought to undermine Cohen's credibility, saying repeatedly that he had lied to Congress in previous testimony while he was still working for Trump, had been charged with tax fraud and campaign finance violations, and was now headed to prison.

Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary, dismissed Cohen's appearance on Capitol Hill as irrelevant, saying in a statement that he was a "disgraced felon" and that he was "given yet another opportunity to spread his lies."

"I am not a perfect man," Cohen said in his opening statement. "I have done things I am not proud of, and I will live with the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life.

"But today, I get to decide the example I set for my children and how I attempt to change how history will remember me. I may not be able to change the past, but I can do right by the American people here today."