Last night, liberal guest Nomiki Konst turned the tables a bit on Corey “Womp, Womp” Lewandowski during a debate about raising taxes to 70% on the very wealthiest.
You may recall that Trump thug Lewandowski came under fire for sneering "womp, womp" about a 10 year-old migrant girl with Down Syndrome who was taken from her mother and put in a cage. So for Konst to use that line during a debate with him was a terrific way to make a statement that she was there to make her case on even ground, despite being outnumbered.
Konst, a candidate to become New York City’s public advocate, was on The Ingraham Angle in yet another Fox News segment obsessing over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In this case, it was Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion to boost taxes on the super wealthy. Or, as a lower-third banner put it, “SOCIALIST OCASIO-CORTEZ’S NEW RADICAL IDEA.”
Guest host Raymond Arroyo argued that Ocasio-Cortez’s plan would take away incentives to be the next Oprah. “If you took this 70% tax rate that she’s proposed and slapped your local taxes on it, you’re talking about an 82.7% tax rate,” he said.
“Oh, womp, womp, womp for the 1% who have had tax breaks,” Konst shot back. Neither Lewandowski nor Arroyo outwardly reacted to the salvo.
But Konst continued with a serious point, that income inequality in the U.S. is a big problem, worse than after the 1929 Wall Street crash, according to her. And, she contended, all those tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy have “starved our housing, our schools, our infrastructure, our MTA.”
“We’re not talking about you and me,” Konst added to Arroyo. “We’re not even talking about you.”
Nobody contradicted her. Instead, Lewandowski came up with some bizarre claims.
First, he claimed that billionaire Michael Bloomberg is one of Ocasio-Cortez’s “close personal friends.” Fact check: Bloomberg appears to have supported Joseph Crowley, who lost the primary to Ocasio-Cortez.
Lewandowski next bizarre response was that wealthy people who support Ocasio-Cortez should just voluntarily up their tax bill. “There’s nothing that prohibits them from paying more right now,” he said.
At about 7:28, Arroyo changed the subject to another woman Fox can’t stop obsessing over: Hillary Clinton. The excuse this time was Clinton meeting with 2020 Democratic candidates “Why are the Democrats coming to kiss this woman’s ring?” Arroyo asked.
Konst said candidates want access to Clinton’s money and donor infrastructure. But what’s needed to win in 2020, Konst believes, is a movement such as Bernie Sanders’ grass roots movement (Konst is a Sanders supporter).
“Well, look, I’ll give you credit,” Lewandowski allowed. “Bernie Sanders had the second largest crowds of any candidate in the last election cycle, behind Donald Trump, so he clearly had a movement behind him.”
“And no Russians!” Konst quipped.
“The only Russians that were ever involved were in the Clinton campaign,” Lewandowski ridiculously insisted. This is a big, fat lie. But Arroyo let it go unchallenged.
“Why are we still focusing on her?” Konst asked about Clinton.
The discussion moved on to another woman Fox venomously obsesses over: Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Surely Rep. Rashida Tlaib will soon be added to the list.
Konst is always one of my favorite liberals on Fox News and it’s not just her feisty responses, which also remain good humored, but that she routinely swats away Fox’s attempts to put her on defense.
Watch it below, from the January 4, 2019 The Ingraham Angle.
But to be very specific about the various lies that Lewandowski tried to sneak in: No, the Democratic primaries were not rigged against Bernie Sanders – he lost fair and square, as he himself acknowledged. No, the Democratic Party did not begin or fund the Steele Dossier (more and more of which has now been confirmed as factual) – this was opposition research initially sought by GOP opponents of Trump and eventually finished with final funds from the Dems after Trump won the primaries. And the notion that super-rich Americans are about to voluntarily donate millions to the IRS is complete nonsense.
But let’s not forget how Arroyo also snuck in a side shot at Hillary Clinton. He played a little game by just wondering if potential Dem candidates shouldn’t be avoiding Hillary Clinton and going instead to Michelle Obama, since her book sold better than Hillary’s. This is an old Fox News/Right Wing trope, which they’ve been throwing around for over a decade. (This began during the 2008 campaign when Right Wingers tried to stir up trouble by loudly insisting that a Michelle Obama quote about how she and her husband handled parenting was somehow a slap at the Clintons rather than an actual observation of their domestic life.) So Arroyo went for a cheap bank shot, where he essentially said (along with Lewandowski) that Clinton is a failure and anyone trying to get help from her would also be a failure. Not very subtle, but Konst didn’t pick up on it. (On the other hand, to be honest, Konst really isn’t concerned about Clinton other than the fact that she can definitely provide access to donors to the right candidates.)