Conventions Highlight Corporate America's Grasp On Politics

During both the Republican and Democratic conventions, the issues of inflation and price gouging were at the forefront. But what was missing from the floor speeches was the fact that the companies and people responsible for the pain you’re feeling were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for private boxes at these conventions to suck up to lawmakers. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

During both the Republican and the Democratic conventions, the issues of inflation and price gouging were at the forefront. But what was missing from the floor speeches was the fact that companies and people responsible for the pain you're feeling were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for private boxes at these conventions to suck up to the lawmakers or maybe future lawmakers. No surprise. They had rooms up there from the top that were costing $500,000 just so you could be in that room. And it was both sides. I mean, both Republican we're for the working person. You really matter to us. And then they're gonna have drinks with the corporate America that tells them, well, you know, we want to raise prices on this. We want to raise prices on insurance. We ought to be able to drill wherever the hell we want to drill. We ought to sell pharmaceuticals that might kill or cripple people and get away with it. There's a problem with that message, isn't there?

There really is. And I gotta give credit here, because Chris Cuomo, reporting for NewsNation, he's on the floor actually of the DNC, started openly calling them out. And he pointed out, it was like this at the Republican convention too, but you got suites up there that start at half a million dollars. Some that go up to over one and a half million dollars.

Yes.

And what they're paying for is not the best seats in the house. They're paying for access. They are paying for the opportunity to sit with these people for four days. But as Cuomo talks about, the media doesn't talk about those, they're not talking about the box seats. They show these happy, enthusiastic people out in the crowds and the passionate speeches on stage. But we need to know what.

And the celebrities, oh my God, you got to show the celebrities.

But we need to know what's happening behind those closed doors. That's the question that the media should be asking.

Well, I wasn't at this convention behind closed doors, but I've been behind them and what they do is parade candidates. Okay. This is Joe Smith and he's running here. He sure would like your help. Oh, by the way, he's real good on making sure that we don't control prices on drugs. Joe, why don't you take it away? That's what it's like. It's one after another. And so they're sitting up there completely disassociated with all of the realities that are being talked about on the floor. That's what's so disgusting about it. But I don't think it's ever gonna change. Do you think Chris might have been upset that he wasn't up there anymore?

Well, that's the thing is, you know.

Because Chris was sure up there a lot, I can tell you that much.

Yeah, probably with his brother.

Yes, yes.

But if he were still with CNN he probably would've been right there in the thick of it. And I will give credit, by the way, to NewsNation, they actually do a really good job of being a true neutral in the media fight. They really do.

You know, I think you're right. I think you're right. I think politically.

Dan Abrams is phenomenal, I do think.

Yeah. They're really trying to do that, aren't they?

They really are.

And I hope they can keep up. It's not gonna help 'em with advertising as we remember Air America.

Right.

We came out with Air America. God, you were a kid back then. But, it was a great program. We had Janeane Garofalo, Al Franken, just an incredible, Sam Seder, a lineup of, Chuck D. You remember, it was just this incredible lineup of liberal speakers. And Bobby and I had our own show called Ring of Fire. We couldn't get advertisers because everything we talked about was in their face. We couldn't get car dealerships to come with us because we were talking about defective car parts.