Warren Suggests Corporate Media Ask Working People, Not Just the Very Rich, About Her Wealth Tax

Presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks to members of SEA/SEIU Local 1984, state employees, at the Holiday Inn in Concord New Hampshire, after signing papers to officially enter the New Hampshire Primary race on November 13, 2019. (Photo: Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

Warren Suggests Corporate Media Ask Working People, Not Just the Very Rich, About Her Wealth Tax

"Okay, I get it, we have now done the billionaires. How many of the 43 million Americans who are struggling with student loan debt have you seen interviewed?"

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday evening called out the news media for focusing their coverage of her proposed Ultra-Millionaires Tax largely on wealthy CEOs' and investors' negative views of the plan rather than those of the working families the senator says would benefit from the redistribution of wealth.

At a town hall attended by 200 SEIU members in Concord, New Hampshire, Warren asked the crowd, "How many billionaires have you seen interviewed in just the last week about this wealth tax?"

"Okay, I get it, we have now done the billionaires," she continued. "How many of the 43 million Americans who are struggling with student loan debt have you seen interviewed?"

Watch:

Warren's comments followed her campaign's release of an ad Wednesday targeting powerful political donors like Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein, investor Leon Cooperman, and Trump contributor Peter Thiel--all of whom have been given significant airtime by cable news networks to decry Warren's plan to tax all household assets over $50 million at 2% per year.

Last week, Microsoft founder Bill Gates's well-publicized comments about Warren's proposal inspired the Massachusetts Democrat to add a page to her website showing Gates, Cooperman, and potential 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg exactly how much they would pay under her plan.

"How many of the people who are struggling to pay childcare around this country have you seen interviewed?" Warren asked Wednesday. "How many of the teachers who are working second and third jobs to try to make ends meet and try to pay off their student loans have you seen interviewed?"

"I am sick of an America that works for the billionaires and doesn't work for anyone else," she added.

Warren's point on Wednesday echoed a remark made by author Anand Giridharadas earlier this week.

"I've seen many interviews with billionaires about the candidacies of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders," Giridharadas tweeted. "Has anyone done a similarly well-publicized, primetime interview with a person on food stamps or in suffocating debt about their candidacies?"

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.