Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has condemned Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell after a picture on social media showed seven men in “Team Mitch” shirts appearing to grope and choke a cardboard cutout of the Democratic congresswoman, with the caption: “Break me off a piece of that.”

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In a message to McConnell on Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez wrote: “These young men look like they work for you. Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping and choking members of Congress w/ your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch? Thanks.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) Hey @senatemajldr - these young men look like they work for you.



Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping & choking members of Congress w/ your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch?



Thanks. https://t.co/ysRJuwonUx

It is not clear who is shown in the picture, but it appears the men were attending an annual picnic in Fancy Farm, a small town in Kentucky, where McConnell made an appearance. The senator’s campaign Instagram account shared a series of photos with a few of the young men, among others, holding cardboard cutouts of two of the supreme court’s conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.

McConnell received criticism for a separate photo taken at the picnic and shared on his campaign Twitter account, of cardboard tombstones that depicted the names of Kentucky state Democrats Alison Lundergan Grimes and Amy McGrath.

Also shown was former supreme court nominee Merrick Garland, whose confirmation process was blocked by a McConnell-led Republican strategy after Barack Obama had nominated him while he was president, to replace the late Antonin Scalia.

McGrath, who is running against McConnell for his US Senate seat in 2020, tweeted: “Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal.”

Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging. pic.twitter.com/2x5kO5jwPi

McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden said in a statement to the Washington Post that the men are high school students who are not part of the senator’s campaign staff. The campaign “in no way condones” the picture, Golden said. McConnell has not addressed the photo personally.

The “Team Mitch” shirts the men are wearing in the picture are available on McConnell’s website with a $30 donation to the senator’s campaign. “Get your ‘Team Mitch’ T-shirt and help me keep fighting for our Kentucky values,” reads a description on the website.

McConnell has received criticism from Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, in the aftermath of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings for refusing to call a special session for the Senate during August recess to take up a gun background-checks bill passed by the House earlier this year.