The panel on CNN’s “NewsNight” came unglued on Wednesday while discussing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s tax plan, which he shared with CNBC earlier that day.
In an interview with Aaron Ross Sorkin, Bezos claimed that the bottom percentile of workers should pay no income tax. He said that the plan would benefit more middle-income earners, like a nurse in Queens, New York, than economic plans put forward by Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist mayor of New York City, to increase taxes on the wealthy.
“You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens,” Bezos claimed.
Bezos’s idea set off a firestorm on CNN.
Arthur Aidala, a criminal defense attorney, claimed that Bezos was right that increasing taxes on the wealthy would be detrimental to the middle class. He argued that increasing taxes could cause wealthy people to flee certain areas for low-tax havens.
Aidala also claimed that Mamdani was about to “ruin the economy” in New York by raising taxes on the wealthy, a claim that didn’t sit well with other panelists.
“What set of facts do you have to back that up?” Charles Blow, a political journalist, shot back.
Aidala claimed that Citadel Capital CEO Ken Griffin’s recent comments about Mamdani putting people like him in danger were one example. Noah Rothman, a writer for the National Review, argued that Florida’s population growth shows how Mamdani’s tax plan has made the wealthy leave New York City.
“Not everybody in Florida is moving from New York,” Blow countered. “So I want to know … What are your numbers?”
Host Jessica Dean attempted to intervene, but the conversation got more heated from there.
Aidala wouldn’t say where he got his data from, which led Blow to attack further.
“We can’t just do this whole thing like, ‘I know a guy,’” Blow said. “You have no data.”
Blow held up a chart showing that millionaires continue to move to New York City despite Mamdani’s policies.
“What are you talking about?” Blow said to Aidala.
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