Robert Gibbs Smacks around CNBC’s Rick Santelli

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 11:56 pm

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Today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wasted little time putting the smack down on CNBC’ s Rick Santelli, whose now famous tirade yesterday about Obama’s mortgage plan was an Internet sensation. It is funny how Santelli wasn’t
complaining when the taxpayer money was bailing out the banks.

Here is Santelli’s original rant:

Here is the video of Gibbs responding to Santelli:Here is my favorite part of Gibbs’s reply, “I’ve watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I am not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or what house he lives, but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgage, stay in their job, meet their bills, to send their kids to school, and to hope that they do get sick or someone they care for gets sick and sends them into bankruptcy. I think we left a few months ago the adage that if it was good for a derivatives trader it was good for Main St.”

Gibbs later said, “Mr. Santelli might also know that if you live near a home that has been foreclosed, your home value has likely dropped about 9%, which for the average home is about $20,000…I would encourage him to read the president’s plan, and understand that it will help millions of people, many of whom he knows…I would encourage him to download it (the president’s plan) hit print, and begin to read it.”

Wow, that was quite a beat down. I would add that Rick Santelli had no problem with the government spending over a trillion dollars to bail out the banking system. Apparently, it is fine to ask the American people to subsidize the greed and mismanagement of Wall Street, but it is a moral outrage to help people who are making their mortgage payments remain in their homes. Santelli’s little temper tantrum yesterday was really about his ideology that the market should be left alone, except when it is about to collapse.

Santelli’s manufactured outrage is in part based on the fact that the mortgage money is coming out of the remaining $350 billion in the TARP fund. It was fine when the TARP funds were being used for bonuses on Wall Street, but heaven forbid, the taxpayers get some benefit from their own money. Santelli is a Wall Street creature who wouldn’t know the real America if it showed up at his front door. The White House is giddy about Santelli’s tirade, because it gives them a foil to use to sell their plan. These conservative criticisms are based on selfishness and stupidity, which is what, got us into this mess in the first place.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association