During Friday’s edition of The Intelligence Report on the Fox Business Network, host Trish Regan and conservative guest Ned Ryun thoroughly schooled liberal panelist Pablo Manriquez regarding the use of “identity politics” when dealing with financial issues.
Regan began the May 19 program by declaring that “Democrats are sticking with their failed message of identity politics; they just can’t abandon this, can they?” She then noted: “During a congressional hearing on tax reform, Democrats focused not on the policy being discussed but the diversity of people discussing the issue.”
She then played video clips from Democratic members of Congress, starting with John Lewis of Georgia, who claimed: “I don't see any African-American, Latinos, Asian-American or native American. I don't see any women here speaking up.”
“No,” Regan declared. “God forbid you actually focus on substance, on policy when you can be playing identity politics instead, right?”
Next came Danny Davis of Illinois, who stated: “I think the information that we've heard sounds great, but it also comes from not enough diversity.”
The final clip featured Linda Sanchez of California, who growled: “I hope that we won't continue to have hearings where we only have panelists who represent a narrow set of interests.”
Regan then asserted:
We need tax reform, right? We've talked about this. The market wants it. It’s important for our economy. It's important for business. It's important for Americans and jobs.
And yet all they could talk about was “Why didn’t you have more diversity talking about tax policy?” My goodness, who cares? We need it. End of story.
She then asked Ryun: “Ned, why can't they focus on issue at hand? Why do they have to take it off into the stratosphere every time?”
The founder and CEO of American Majority -- an organization that identifies and trains candidates and activists to become involved in local government, school district governance or state -- responded: “The thing that’s amazing to me about the Democrats: They’ve lost their own identity by trying to placate every identity.”
“The thing that we saw again, identity politics did not work in 2016 simply by saying ‘All we are doing is opposing Trump,’” Ryun stated. “At some point, the American people are going to say: What do you actually stand for? What are your ideas?”
“I actually think this is an opportunity for the GOP on the Hill to grow a spine and actually have some courage and be aggressive to push for this agenda,” he continued. “They can have massive positive results because the Democrats, I think right now they are lost. The only thing they can think about is ‘How do we undercut Trump?’”
At that point, Pablo Manriquez -- a former media booker for the Democratic National Committee – joined the fray by noting: “I think I’m going to have to push back here a little bit, guys, so bear with me.” More on him in a moment.
The liberal guest stated:
I'm going to disagree a little bit with Ryun here, that the GOP needs to find their spine. They need to find their Rolodex. I mean, you guys have some of the most qualified speakers imaginable who are diverse about tax reform.
Take Carlos Gutierrez for example. Gutierrez was probably the best secretary of commerce we’ve ever had.
Regan then asked: “Why does that matter right now? Why can't we just talk about the need for tax reform itself?”
“Because that's all the Democrats have to offer right now,” Ryun answered. “The thing that’s interesting to me is … they aren't offering anything other than that.”
“If we can go to the top three in competitive tax brackets,” he noted. “If we can repatriate $2.6 trillion in foreign revenue and bring it back and put $260 billion into our government and into infrastructure possibly, over $2 trillion back into American businesses in jobs.”
“Imagine the growth. We’re talking about three to four percent growth right now if we can get this passed through,” Ryun stated. “I keep telling Republicans, if you do this, you can win in 2018, you can win in 2020, and you might put Democrats in the political wilderness for generations.”
“I don’t think that the Republicans want to succeed,” Manriquez declared, “if they’d rather hook up five white guys to push a message forward when all they have to do is make it a little bit diverse, and they could push the exact same message forward. People from their own Rolodex.”
“Here's the thing: I don't want to actually give into this narrative because this is exactly what they wanted. They didn't want to talk about tax policy; they wanted to talk about identity politics, and here we are doing it,” she said sarcastically to conclude the segment.
Interesting, a quick perusing of Manriquez's Linkedin page will show that he claims to be a "Fox News commentator." Same goes for the firm Manriquez started, K Street Media. Also on his Linkedin page, Manriquez appears to have worked for Fox News from 2012 to 2015 and an author page on FoxNews.com confirmed that. Now, unless he's on the payroll and he's not sharing that, he's not an official FNC or FBN personality. A check of the "On-Air Personalities" page on the Fox News website doesn't mention Manriquez either.
