A battle broke out on CNN Wednesday morning as a Democratic pundit fact-checked the GOP panelist about the work he claims the White House is doing to help on the affordability crisis.
The debate began with reporting that the midterm “convention” event in Texas would be charging nearly $89,000 to snag a photo with President Donald Trump. A roundtable with Trump will cost $250,000. This pairs with the $25,000 that each elected official is being charged to attend the event.
When CNN’s Manu Raju asked congressional officials whether they plan to attend, those he spoke to made it clear that they need to be in their districts, focusing on their own elections.
“Trump is sitting on more than $400 million. He has money to burn. So why is there a convention?” asked CNN host Audie Cornish to Semafor economics reporter Eleanor Mueller.
“I think the bigger problem than the charging for the photo and the invitation, which is honestly pretty on par with what they’ve been charging for the last two years, is the cost to House Republicans to travel and attend the convention,” said Mueller. “So much of this is about them keeping their majority, and the fact that, as we saw, so many have decided to not go is, I think, is going to really hamper these fundraising efforts that they are so clearly determined to ramp up here.”
Cornish was confused, saying that the whole point of the convention appears to be an effort to tout Trump’s record.
“My record is good. All of you are chumps. No one likes you, right? That’s the sort of Trump argument against congressional Republicans. And the best thing I can do for you is be more visible to make it a referendum on me,” Cornish said.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told the Legal AF podcast this week that she hasn’t spoken to a single Republican who is happy about this. They feel put upon by this. It stays off of the trail to have to go do this. It’s very confusing what the purpose is beyond just celebrating Donald Trump. And as you say, they have — it’s very hard for a lot of these folks to run on … aspects of Trump’s record right now.”
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright mocked Trump’s response to the affordability crisis, saying that even a photo with Trump costs over $88,000.
“Look, the reality is this is how out of touch Donald Trump and Republicans are as they continue to pimp the presidency and the office. Americans in the states Donald Trump won are suffering from the high cost of living. 18.2 million, my good friend Terry, in places that Donald Trump won, are seeing their premiums, co-pays, and deductibles rise as much as $1,000 per month. People are dying, literally because of these decisions that this White House and this president has made.”
Republican Terry Schilling called BS on that, saying that no one is dying.
The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Yale School of Public Health conducted an impact study examining how the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” would affect Americans and found that it would lead to over 50,000 preventable deaths per year, largely due to healthcare cuts. Slashing subsidies to the Affordable Care Act is calculated to cost an estimated 20,000 deaths, while there will be 13,000 annual deaths that come from rolling back mandatory safe-staffing requirements at nursing homes. About 18,200 deaths will come from “the loss of Medicaid coverage among 1.38 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries, causing loss of access to low-income prescription drug subsidies.”
Schilling disagreed that this was accurate, as Seawright maintained that the GOP’s bill was the “largest transfer of wealth in American history.”
“No, no. That’s that is a garbage line. It’s been debunked left and right. It is not. President Trump. >> Is holding this convention. >> The American people and working families had their tax cuts made permanent, which Democrats will repeal and raise their taxes on day one, as soon as they get into office,” claimed Schilling.
Schilling explained that the convention is necessary to promote all of the things that Trump has done in his first two years in office. The GOP convention will remind voters of this, he said.
“He has $400 million!” emphasized Cornish.
“Let’s deal with the real issue at hand: You’re telling me that the do-nothing Congress and do-nothing President’s agenda is selling to the American people selling to the American people? Are you tone deaf to what every single — why are you tone deaf?” Seawright said as Schilling kept trying to talk over him. “Let me — let me finish. Let me finish. Have you seen the polling data for Democrats, Republicans, and everyday Americans and what they feel about this president’s agenda? The president and the Congress are underwater on every single major issue they campaigned on, and voters are going to pull the plug in November as a result of their failure.”
Schilling said that Democrats aren’t doing much better, but Seawright made it clear Republicans are in charge of every branch of government. There are no Democrats to blame.
“One thing,” Seawright continued. “Name one thing this White House has done to lower costs for the American people they promised on day one.”
Schilling said everything they’ve done was in an effort to lower prices.
“Point to it. Point to it. Point to one thing that’s lower cost for the American people,” Seawright asked, but Schilling couldn’t. “I love you, you cannot point to one thing that’s lower cost for everyday Americans in this country.”
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