Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus joined Fox News’ coverage of the New Hampshire primary to scare viewers about a potential Bernie Sanders presidency. Host Neil Cavuto “forgot” to tell viewers Marcus is one of Donald Trump’s top donors.
Although Cavuto acknowledged that Marcus is a billionaire, it was not revealed that Marcus was a top Trump donor in 2016 who has pledged his support for Trump’s 2020 campaign. Instead, Cavuto merely said that Marcus is “closely watching” Sanders.
“It’s pretty frightening,” Marcus said about the possibility of a Sanders presidency. He claimed that while Sanders “says he’s a socialist, he’s actually a communist.” Fact check: That’s a Trump attack line that Sanders shot down on Fox News yesterday, saying, “Obviously, I am not a communist” before adding that maybe Trump doesn’t know the difference.
However, Cavuto did not push back on the “communist” slur.
“What he’s going to do to America, he’s not hiding it,” Marcus said. “One thing about Bernie Sanders is he’s very, very open about what he believes in, and he’s going to absolutely dismantle whatever Trump has done. So, we have a great economy, so let’s dismantle it, let’s bring back regulations … and let’s start taxing people again. Let’s take the best medical care in the world that slipped under Obamacare and let’s go to Medicare for which they’ll be no limit on how much it will cost, and then you have a guy like Tom Steyer this morning throwing in this $22 an hour minimum wage.”
“These people have lost their minds,” Marcus continued. “Either they don’t understand the facts of life, or they don’t understand what the reality is, because the reality is the country’s in great shape today. More minorities are working than ever before, both the Hispanics and the blacks. The workforce is at its highest level ever.”
First of all, regulations can be good. Second, 20 million people got health insurance thanks to Obamacare. Third, Trump’s tax cuts have mostly benefitted the rich mostly.
Cavuto snarked, “A lot of people are OK with taxing guys like you to pay for them as long as it’s not them.”
“There aren’t enough people like me to pay for it,” Marcus claimed. “It’s insanity. This is called not being able to add one and one. They come up with seven, everybody else comes up with two.”
Then, before closing, Marcus took a swipe at young Sanders supporters and American universities: “All these young people that love Bernie Sanders are going to these Taj Mahals called universities that stupid people put money into so they can raise the tuition rate. I wouldn’t give money to any university except for a program. I wouldn’t give it to their endowment funds or anything else.”
“I’m going to put you down as a maybe on Bernie Sanders,” Cavuto quipped, as he ended the segment.
You can see how Fox turns coverage of a Democratic primary into Republican PR below, from the February 10, 2020 Your World.