Politics

Daily Beast Mocks Chris Christie For Being Rich, Mocks Scott Walker For Not Being Rich 8 DAYS LATER

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In a span of eight April days, reporters at The Daily Beast have ridiculed Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker for the sin of having credit debt and mocked New Jersey Governor (and possible presidential candidate) Chris Christie for not feeling wealthy despite his considerable household income.

Strangely, however, The Daily Beast, which presents itself as a hard-hitting, centrist news outlet, does not appear to care a single iota about Bill and Hillary Clinton’s impressive current net worth of $55 million.

The April 28 Beast piece on Walker, by political writer Betsy Woodruff (formerly of Slate and National Review), focuses on the Wisconsin governor’s financial situation — which isn’t great compared to, say, the life of opulence enjoyed by the Clintons.

Walker’s recent financial disclosures show that he owes various credit providers between $10,000 and $100,000 as of 2014, Woodruff notes, and he shops at Kohl’s, a “sale-happy department store.”

“Walker’s case isn’t extraordinary,” she adds, because roughly a third of all Americans have more credit card debt than they have in savings.

Woodruff is concerned, though, because Walker “has made his personal spending habits a central part of his campaign messaging (without any mention of credit card debt, naturally)” and has “long made his personal finances a campaign selling point.”

She believes she has discovered a critical contradiction between Walker’s gubernatorial campaign theme of “Don’t spend more than you have” and the fact that he, as a consumer, has incurred credit card debt.

“Seems Scott Walker might want to change his slogan to ‘Do as I say, not as do,'” Woodruff quotes Scot Ross of the leftist advocacy group One Wisconsin Now as saying.

“Walker’s personal finances might stand to benefit a little” from Walker’s mantra of fiscal responsibility, the twentysomething journalist chides in conclusion.

Meanwhile, another Daily Beast political writer, Olivia Nuzzi, wrote eight days earlier to reprimand Chris Christie for not feeling sufficiently wealthy.

Nuzzi’s April 20 Beast piece reports that Christie said “I don’t consider myself a wealthy man” at an event in New Hampshire mid-April.

She notes that Christie and his wife, an investment banker in New York, declared a 2013 income of $698,838. (The couple would need to work 78 years to accumulate an amount of wealth equal to the Clinton clan’s.)

“Christie isn’t rich if you’re comparing him to his friends and donors, and he certainly may not feel rich in New Jersey, where his own policies have made living more expensive,” Nuzzi proclaims.

“But it turns out that feeling just makes Christie exactly like many other technically rich people: not very self-aware.”

“Compared to the perks Christie can enjoy when the government is footing the bill” and to the wealthy people with whom he has mingled such as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones owner and King Abdullah of Jordan, “he must not feel very rich at all when trying to live on his own income.”

Nuzzi also notes that Christie’s “personal wealth has been a topic of discussion” since he initially entered politics. She digs up a 21-year-old quote from an obscure New Jersey political opponent of Christie’s, Anthony Bucco. “If all you need to be a legislator is a lot of money and uncontrolled ambition, I think the state is in trouble,” Nuzzi quotes Bucco as saying back when Nuzzi was a toddler or so.

Speaking of a lot of money and ambition, a search of The Daily Beast’s archives shows not one single story about Hillary Clinton’s vast wealth. (RELATED: 17 Reasons It’s IMPOSSIBLE For Hillary Clinton To Relate To Normal Americans)

For example, searching the two words “Hillary” and “poor” brings up 165 Daily Beast results. None appear to discuss the multimillionaire Democratic presidential candidate’s piles of cash. Examples of the results include “Hillary Clinton’s Own Populist Path” and “The GOP’s Pitiful Reformers.”

A search for the words “Hillary” and “rich” yields articles such as “Pro-Hillary Group: She’s Not Rich, She’s You,” “16 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Will Win 2016” and “GOP Crumbs for the Middle Class.”

A search for the words “Hillary” and “million” turns up this gem: “Tea Partier Might Vote for Hillary Clinton.”

Earlier this year, Daily Beast editor-in-chief John Avlon bragged to Capital New York that he and his reporters “seek out scoops, scandals and stories about secret worlds; we love confronting bullies, bigots and hypocrites.”

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