Camerota Hints Businesses May Use Bonuses to Scam Employees into Voting GOP

Newsbusters.org ^ | December 26, 2017 | Brad Wilmouth

[Kaslin]

As Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell appeared as a guest on Tuesday's New Day, CNN host Alisyn Camerota at one point seemed to fret that businesses are planning to pay out bonuses after the tax cuts were passed as a way of making their employees grateful to Republicans for their pay increase and coax them to vote for the GOP -- and that the ploy might succeed.

At 7:24 a.m., as Rep. Dingell complained that she wants President Donald Trump to do more on economic issues like infrastructure and health care, Camerota began setting up her next question:

ALISYN CAMEROTA: You know, just, ever since the tax reform was announced -- tax overhaul or whatever you want to call it -- there have been this whole slew of companies that have come forward and said, "Guess what -- we're going to give out bonuses now to our employees."

And I have just a partial list in front of me, and there's nine companies on here from AT&T to Boeing to Comcast, Bank of America, Sinclair, Wells Fargo, PNC -- there's all sorts of companies that say they're going to give something to a thousand -- a thousand dollars worth of bonuses to their hundreds of thousands of employees. One is going to -- Bancorp is going to boost the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The CNN host added:

CAMEROTA: Obviously, they could have done this before the tax overhaul was announced -- they were sitting on profits -- but they didn't. They did it when the tax overhaul was announced, and I'm wondering if you -- as a Democrat -- are worried about the wind in their sails. People vote with their pocketbook -- I don't have to tell you this -- so if you just get a $1,000 bonus, you're voting for Donald Trump again.

Her Democratic guest responded:

DINGELL: Well, first of all, I've always said, you know, I keep saying the same thing -- the next election is going to be about the economy, jobs, trade deals. You know, I'm never going to complain that any working man or woman gets an extra boost in their income. But I think a lot of people are still worried. The nonpartisan Tax Institute says that less than 86 million working families are actually going to see an increase in taxes at some point.

Camerota then followed up: "Years from now, so after the midterms. Well after the midterms. Could this help carry Republicans through the midterms?"

[Obadiah]

"One Adam 12, one Adam 12, see the man at post #36 for a possible grammar violation. Complainant states that while he was yelling at kids to stay off his lawn he noticed an egregious grammar violation at post #36. Proceed with caution."

[Magnum44]

Speaking of free phones, what department managed that fraudulent program and please tell me that it no longer exists?

[Terry Mross]

Did see the video where Charles Barkley read the teleprompter and ended it with “and I’m a dumbass”?

[Pining_4_TX]

Hmm, there’s MSNBC, the NFL, Kanye West’s bodyguard, Madonna’s STD doctor, Sen. Menendez’ pilot flying to the island of underage girls, a Social Justice university professor,a Soros activist....

[JoeFromSidney]

Years ago I worked at a radio station. We got the news from one of the wire services. It came in via teletype, printed out on the big roll of yellow paper in the machine.

One day I came in to find a chunk of teletype paper posted on the bulletin board, with a note,"This is why you read the news before you go into the studio."

I looked at it and saw that the sender at the wire service had inadvertently made a typo that turned the intended word into an obscenity.

We could have been in trouble with the FCC if that had gone out over the Air.

[Terry Mross]

Did the same thing. Bells would start ringing when an alert came over. Sometimes you’d be reading the story and it would end in the middle. You had to think fast and ad lib. Fun times.