Fox Business host Trish Regan, one of the biggest Trumpers to be seen on either Fox network, unexpectedly lambasted the Trump tax bill as a huge “swamp” and a giveaway to the wealthy. It was the kind of rhetoric more often seen anywhere but coming from a Fox host. UPDATED: Regan has had a change of heart.
Crooks and Liars’ John Amato caught Regan’s brutal assessment:
“[W]hile it’s great for corporations and there’s nothing wrong with that. And it’s great for a lot of fat cats private equity investors - and there’s something wrong with that.”
Regan said, “This guy, Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone Group CEO) who’s made over $400 million in one year and percentage-wise, well guess what his tax bracket is actually lower than a New York City cop. How do you like that? And it’s because he calls his income ‘investments.’ The president promised to fix this, remember?”
A banner on the screen read, “FAT CAT LOOPHOLES REMAIN IN TAX BILL DESPITE TRUMP’S VOW TO CLOSE THEM.”
Regan went on to play video of Donald Trump promising to eliminate “special interest loopholes” that “have been good for people like me” and accusing Hillary Clinton of getting Wall Street backing because of her support for the “rigged system.”
Regan added that neither the House nor Senate “ever bothered to address this.” So maybe she’s still a True Trumper because she never blamed Trump for anything related to the bill nor did she note just how much he and his family stand to benefit by the bill. At least not in this clip.
“So those private equity fat cats get away with paying investment taxes instead of income taxes,” Regan continued. “And that is just wrong!”
Regan did, however, mock Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin by playing a clip of him saying over and over again about the carried interest loophole, “It’s not that much money”
“No, It’s not that much money. I mean, who cares about $100 billion? Maybe Steven Mnuchin doesn’t care about $100 billion or his billionaire friends, but come on!” Regan sniped.
“I’m beginning to wonder if our country is becoming ungovernable,” she continued. “Because I’ll tell you one thing: Our Founding Fathers never, ever anticipated a swamp like the one we have today.”
This kind of criticism of anything Republican, much less a tax-cut bill, is almost unheard of on Fox. But it’s especially surprising coming from Regan. This is the same Trish Regan who credited Donald Trump for a rise in holiday spending last year, before he became president; attacked Moody’s after it concluded Hillary Clinton’s economic plan would lead to a stronger economy than Trump’s; and helped validate Trump’s bigoted attack on Gold Star father Khizr Khan by sneering, “I guess Allah is rooting for Hillary.”
I have to wonder if there’s a contingent at Fox that opposes the tax bill. It’s curious, as NewsHound Richard noted, that Laura Ingraham never discussed it during her entire show last night. Also, Regan’s commentary was almost certainly approved by a Fox producer.
Of course, much of the rest of Fox’s coverage of the tax bill has been slobberingly positive. But I’ll have more about that in a later post.
Meanwhile, watch Regan tear the tax bill apart below, from the December 18, 2017 The Intelligence Report with Trish Regan, via Crooks and Liars.
UPDATE: It looks like someone at Fox News gave Regan a talking to. Our friends at Crooks and Liars caught Regan saying this as guest hosted on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo:
"Now you're starting to see that and tax reform by most accounts is going to be quite stimulative to our economy, so I just question whether, you know, you've got Democrats there who are sort of looking at this rather begrudgingly, wishing the market wasn't doing this well, wishing the unemployment numbers were actually worse, wishing that wages would not increase because politically speaking if the Republicans have a win with this, it makes it very difficult in '18."
Trump has caught on that MacConnell, Ryan, Pence and the rest are in the throes of dumping him on his spongy arse. Now they have that monstrosity of a Tax Rip-Off bill, he is no more than a speed-hump on their road to TRY and resurrect themselves next November. They rushed it through at such a reckless pace, it’s clear they intend to do him in ASAP. So it appears Trump is refusing to sign the bill, until he gets some guarantee that they’ll keep supporting him.
Watch the fireworks around New Year.
.