President Trump announced on Tuesday that he was against the idea of allowing “poorly run” states to use the coronavirus as an “excuse” to ask for federal money to help with problems that existed prior to the pandemic.
“Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse! The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table,” said Trump in a tweet on Tuesday morning. “Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent.”
Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse! The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table. Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2020
While Trump has been critical of state bailouts before – notably, he blasted Illinois for mismanagement after lawmakers requested pension money inside of a coronavirus bailout – the president’s call-out on Tuesday prompted an extreme response from Cenk Uyger, the founder of the progressive media network The Young Turks.
“If we had a Democrat with balls when we take over, they’d cut off funding to red states & make them beg for their handout,” said Uyger, who blasted Republicans in his response to the president’s tweet. “Almost all of them are welfare queens who live off the blue states. Republican-run states are on average miserable failures who take more from federal govt.”
If we had a Democrat with balls when we take over, they’d cut off funding to red states & make them beg for their handout. Almost all of them are welfare queens who live off the blue states. Republican run states are on average miserable failures who take more from federal govt. https://t.co/0aifSBybnE
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) May 5, 2020
After Uyger received blowback from the Left, with many people accusing him of trying to harm poor people living in red states, the progressive news host justified his response in a message to “all the liberals hating on this tweet.”
For all the liberals hating on this tweet, let’s go over how this normally works. 1. Republicans do terrible things to us. 2. We complain. 3. We don’t fight back. 4. If anyone on our side fights back, we attack them as uncivil. 5. We lose. #FightBackForAChange https://t.co/QBpyfvohtv
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) May 6, 2020
In a follow-up tweet three minutes later, Uyger clarified, for people who don’t watch his show, that he was only speaking rhetorically because “sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.”
Second, I know a lot of you don’t know me or watch @TheYoungTurks so you don’t know, OF COURSE I’m not actually advocating to hurt people in red states. Progressive policies also get them healthcare & raise their wages. But rhetorically sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. https://t.co/CQ9ROvUnPm
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) May 6, 2020
He also shared a tweet from an employee who blasted him for “trying to cut off funds for poor people in red states,” in order to show people that he allows dissenting opinions on his network.
Emma works at TYT. Some have pointed out that even she doesn’t agree with me. Exactly! At @TheYoungTurks we don’t make people conform, we disagree all the time and we encourage strong on-air hosts like Emma, who don’t need permission to disagree! https://t.co/51C9JOZNs7
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) May 6, 2020
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