A MAGA boat parade participant got salty at a CNN correspondent’s suggestion that he was well off and might not be so affected by economic concerns. (Watch the video below.)
Elle Reeve conducted the interviews with a Panama City, Florida, flotilla of Donald Trump supporters and shared them on host Anderson Cooper’s show Wednesday.
Reeve asked one man what his most important issue was for the election. “The economy,” he replied. “Getting interest rates down, getting it where we can afford to live in America. Right now, it’s too expensive.”
Reeve then goaded him a bit.
“OK now, let me maybe ask like a slightly impolite question. … If you can afford a boat, you’re not hurting so bad, right? Because a boat costs a lot of money and it’s a lot of upkeep.”
“Listen, nobody gave me shit!” he replied. “I earned everything that I’ve got. I’m retired military, retired power plant, and I am successful and retired with boats, jet skis because I did it right, and everybody has that chance. Whether they choose or not, that’s up to them.”
Reeve kept at it: “I would never try to take anything away from you in that way, but what I’m asking is groceries are probably a smaller part of your budget than, say, you know, someone who’s, like, a little worse off. I think it’s interesting that people who are a little bit more comfortable are still so concerned about the economy. Do you see what I’m saying?”
“Because I want my money to go further,” the MAGA man answered. “I want inflation to go down, I want interest rates to go back down. I want all that, but that covers everybody in the economy. Not just me, not just the poor, not just the rich. It covers everybody.”
Reeve noted general concerns from voters that their children won’t be able to afford a house or a car.
Not a problem for him, the guy said.
Check out the rest of the chat here at 1:05:
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered interest rates by half a percentage point from its 23-year high to about 4.9%.
“Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” the Fed said in a statement. “Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low. Inflation has made further progress.”
