What sort of economic views does Kamala Harris, the California senator turned Biden VP who’s now the Democratic presidential nominee, hold? Many would say that, given her apparent support for an over 44% capital gains tax and 25% unrealized capital gains tax, she is quite hostile to capitalism and holds, at the very least, left-wing economic views.
Leftist MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, co-host of the “Morning Joe” program, however, claimed during a segment on Wednesday, September 4, that Kamala is quite the capitalist. In fact, he claimed that those who believe in and support “American capitalism” should be worried that if former President Donald Trump wins in November, he will bring about an “imperial presidency” that will be hostile to capitalism.
In fact, Scarborough claimed that because, in his view, Trump will bring about an “imperial presidency,” he will risk posing a threat to the beloved American concept of “smaller government” and, thus, a threat to the free market and American capitalism. Scarborough argued that he, therefore, poses more of a threat to capitalism than Kamala does.
Beginning, Scarborough introduced the idea that the tax code and regulatory matters are more important to the voter than any sort of unrest, an argument that normally favors Trump. He said, “This argument that was made yesterday by an economic reporter: ‘Don’t worry about the insurrection, worry instead about tax code,’ and I think regulations.”
Continuing, he got to the point about capitalism, saying that he is a big supporter of American-style capitalism. He said, “Really that underlines about that I’ve made on this show before and I’m going to make again. If you are a capitalist, if you believe in American capitalism, as I believe in American capitalism, unapologetically believe in American capitalism.”
Describing capitalism’s benefit and the need, in his view, for regulation, Scarborough then said, “It has lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system ever. It has its problems, the sharp edges always need to be rounded off where it doesn’t get in the way of competition and the free markets.” That’s when he got to the point of Trump being a threat to capitalism, saying, ” But if you believe in American capitalism, you should be worried about Donald Trump being elected.”
Continuing, Scarborough, who made no mention of radical leftist regulations, such as EV mandates or Kamala’s proposed unrealized capital gains tax, argued that because Trump will be responsible for an “imperial presidency,” there is a risk of Trump’s America becoming a corrupt nation without regard for a free market.
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He said, making that wild claim and ignoring Kamala’s many faults as regards the free market, “That’s what you get in corrupt nations. Where you have a strong man who picks winners and losers. That’s when competition, that’s when the free market, that’s when the invisible hand is slapped by the autocrat running the state. And that’s when capitalism loses.”
Watch Scarborough’s attack on Trump for supposed anti-free-market beliefs here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video