Geraldo slams top Biden aide for having a ‘Marie Antoinette’ vibe
Co-host Jesse Watters criticized the media for focusing on Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson's 1/6 committee instead of economic concerns
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden's longtime top adviser Ronald Klain is acting toward the American working class like Queen Marie Antoinette when the royal told French peasants ‘let them eat cake’, host Geraldo Rivera said on "The Five" – after the White House chief of staff retweeted and highlighted a Harvard professor's tweet calling record economic inflation a "high class problem".
Klain who was previously Biden's top aide as vice president as well as Barack Obama's Ebola czar, was roundly criticized for the tweet, while USDOT Secretary Peter Buttigieg was similarly criticized for cracking a joke about the supply chain crisis he is essentially charged with solving:
"I think there have always been two kinds of Christmas shoppers," Buttigieg said. "There’s the ones who have all their list completed by Halloween, and then there’s people like me who show up at the mall on Christmas Eve – if you’re in that latter bucket, obviously there’s going to be more challenges."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rivera said Thursday in response to the supply chain crisis that in the short term, adjustments should be made to allow for younger people to apply to be truck drivers, but he reserved a sharper commentary for Klain:
"The problem with what Ron Klain retweeted is it has a ‘Marie Antoinette vibe’. It is a 'let them eat cake' kind of vibe. It is ‘those lower classes that have got their issues, and we upper class – and that’s why I always hated the Ivy League-oriented Democratic Party."
"The reason it’s all happening is COVID is still the atmosphere. It’s bumming everybody out, separating everybody… and then you have the residual lingering wound from Afghanistan. We never got over it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Afghan withdrawal catastrophe, he said, is what "pierced the shield of Joe Biden."
Host Jesse Watters added that Klain has shown himself to be "not a great chief of staff" – and that Biden's press secretary Jennifer Psaki "bombed" in her defense of Klain and the administration during the briefing earlier Thursday.
"They have been all over the map… First, they said there’s no inflation. Then, they said it is transitory, and now, they are saying 'it’s a sign of progress.' It’s not going to cut it," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"[Inflation] does not affect wealthy people that barely at all. You can’t fly, buy, hire. Life has not been made easier by Joe Biden’s presidency. This is where we are now."
Watters added that the Democrats and other networks continue to go wall-to-wall on the January 6th committee being chaired by Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson – and not the supply chain crisis or inflation to the same extent.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Earlier, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin slammed former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon after the ex-Breitbart News chief signaled he may not respond to the committee's subpoena. Raskin saying on Twitter that Bannon should prepare to "face the full force of law for the smirking contempt he is showing Congress."
"If they think the country cares about that," Watters said, "They are not informed about what the country cares about," Watters said.