Trump supporter castigated for calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a ‘29-year-old coffee barista’

A former congressman who supports Donald Trump has been scolded for branding Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “29-year-old coffee barista”.

MSNBC host Ari Melber hit back at Jack Kingston, an ex-Republican congressman from Georgia, on Tuesday night after he dismissed the congresswoman as a coffeemaker.

Mr Melber was hosting a panel about Mr Trump’s recently leaked private schedules which reveal the US president has spent nearly 60 per cent of his scheduled time in the White House over the last three months enjoying unstructured “executive time”.

The daily schedule, leaked by a White House source, showed clear discrepancies in what the president was said to be doing with his time on paper compared to his reported reality.

Mr Melber said: “Surely you can’t say this is normal presidential scheduling. Your response?”

Mr Kingston replied: “Ari, let me say, No. 1, here we have a 29-year-old coffee barista telling a man who’s made billions of dollars running management and enterprises and investments and real estate all over the globe, and she is going to tell him how to manage the world”.

But Mr Melber interrupted immediately – rebuking him for referring to the rising political star’s background.

“She is not being quoted today based on the fact that she worked on retail or in service,” Mr Melber said.

“She is quoted as a member of congress, the same title as yours. Do you not give her the same respect of the title you held?”

But Mr Kingston, a former Republican congressman from Georgia who was a CNN contributor, appeared to ignore his input and simply applauded Mr Trump.

On Monday, the Hollywood Reporter reported Mr Kingston no longer worked with CNN as the news network had not renewed his contract.

Star Wars actor Mark Hammill voiced anger that Mr Kingston – who is known for stoking controversy and was a senior advisor and spokesperson for the Trump campaign – was on MSNBC a day after leaving CNN.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who was dressed in white in an act of solidarity with other women, declined to join a standing ovation for Mr Trump at his State of the Union on Tuesday night despite his purported call for “unity”.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New York’s 14th congressional district, worked as a bartender before thrashing Democrat stalwart Joe Crowley – the 10-term representative and then-fourth-ranking Democrat in the House.

The self-avowed socialist, from the South Bronx, has worked as a waitress, children’s book publisher, community activist, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and volunteered for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign.

She supports abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the creation of a universal healthcare system.

Already this year, she has asserted that Mr Trump is “no question” a racist, and beaten back a manufactured controversy over a video of her dancing while in university.