Progressives latched onto the presence of military branch representatives, which the lawmaker later characterized in a social media video as her being accused of "hosting a military recruitment fair for high schoolers."
On "Jesse Watters Primetime," McEnany said her favorite quote from Ocasio-Cortez' response to critics was that lies and rumors are "just not a right-wing thing."
AOC, TOP DEMOCRATS ISSUE STINGING REBUKE OF BIDEN OVER FAILED CLIMATE PROMISES
Ocasio-Cortez (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
"Well, it tends to usually just be a right-wing thing where lies are made up about you," she said, adding the two most interesting attributes to the story are Ocasio-Cortez being attacked from her own political far-left, and also the premise that recruiting young people to serve in the military is not good.
"You recall when there were protesters who shouted her down over her Ukraine support and sending funding over there, and then in this case, people are calling her a 'warmonger,'" McEnany said.
"The second interesting part is just her insane theories. What is so bad by being recruited by West Point and the Naval Academy in Annapolis? That's probably one of the noblest things you could do in society — is serve and serve in the military at those high ranks."
"But for her, that's a curse. You can't do that on the far-left, and she learned that the hard way."
McEnany (Fox News)
Host Jesse Watters expressed incredulity at another comment about Ocasio-Cortez, when McEnany referenced her past use of "menstruating person" as a larger physiological catch-all than the term "women."
During a 2021 appearance on CNN, Ocasio-Cortez slammed Texas' pro-life law, saying that it was "about controlling women’s bodies, and controlling people who are not cisgender men. This is about making sure that someone like me, a woman, or any menstruating person… cannot make decisions over their own body."
In the lead-up to his interview with McEnany, Watters expounded upon the apparent controversy over being accused of hosting a military recruitment event, saying it is fair to be "skeptical when you're sending billions to Ukraine and voting for Biden's defense budget."
"But AOC says those rumors are just not true. She said all she did was hold a recruitment fair where high schoolers just happened to be recruited into the military, but that's not the point," he said. "The point is AOC is realizing that lies are mean."
Fox News Digital's Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.