Tipsheet

AOC Says Bartending Experience Helped Prepare Her For Cohen Questioning

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said her experience in the service industry helped her question Michael Cohen because it allowed her to hone her “razor-sharp BS detector.”

“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,” she tweeted, responding to a compliment that questioned whether she really was a former bartender and not a former prosecutor. “Just goes to show that what some consider to be “unskilled labor” can actually be anything but.”

Ocasio-Cortez asked Cohen about whether President Trump had intentionally devalued his real estate assets as a way to lower his tax bill. Cohen replied in the affirmative. 

"What you do is, you deflate the value of the asset and then you put in a request to the tax department for a deduction," Cohen explained when asked by the Democratic socialist how Trump went about reducing his tax burden.

"And would it help for the committee to obtain federal and state tax returns from the president and his company to address that discrepancy?" Ocasio-Cortez asked.

"I believe so," Cohen replied.