Chris vs the Koch Kook
by digby
Hayes introduced Jennifer Stefano, the Pennsylvania state director for AFP [Americans for Prosperity] as someone who he thinks “genuinely wakes up every day and thinks about how to destroy Obamacare.”
Any pretense of civility disappeared from the segment soon after that, when Stefano was set off by Hayes pointing out that she denounced the deadline extension as harmful to families and Medicaid recipients while offering no solution herself for insuring those families.
Hayes also pushed back against Stefano’s claim that the uninsured were not signing up for coverage, pointing out that Medicaid expansion did most of the work covering individuals who were not previously insured. When Stefano claimed that families pulling in $94,000 per year were included in the Medicaid expansion, Hayes shook his head and called that a “math trainwreck” — in 2014, a family of 4 that earns roughly $31,721 is considered to be at 133 percent of the poverty level.
“You know nothing about me,” Stefano said. “You have no idea why I wake up in the morning … you know nothing about my family. You don’t know if I was born and raised in a trailer park.”
“How dare you, like Harry Reid, try to undercut the voice of a woman simply because she disagrees with you,” she continued. “Now you may not like where I’m coming from on policy, but you have no right to undercut my voice!”
“I put you on my TV show, I’m not undercutting your voice!” Hayes insisted.
“You’re undercutting my voice because you’re making it personal,” Stefano responded, calling it “typical” for Hayes to attack her rather than “stick to the facts.”
It’s kind of shocking, to be honest:
I think this is the first time I’ve seen that particular kind of response from conservatives — they are often combative but the shrill accusation of personal attack isn’t their usual approach. This is the social media effect, I’d guess. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more of this.
h/t to @AnnaHolmes for the funny screen shot.