Chris Cuomo was already more or less on board with what Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE are trying to do – but now that there’s the possibility of a rebate coming taxpayers’ way, the NewsNation anchor is all in.
A consistent critic of Trump during his CNN days, Cuomo’s continuing center shift included a Wednesday night visit from investor James Fishback, the DOGE advisor who first floated the idea of sending 20% of whatever savings the ad-hoc agency recovers as a rebate to taxpayers. Musk says he’s pitched the idea to Trump – and if they hit their target of $2 trillion in cuts, that could mean as much as $5,000 per person.
“Sounds great,” Cuomo said. “Musk said, ‘I’ll take it to the president,’” he continued, adding that Trump “loves the idea.”
“Can they do it? Should they do it? Let’s bring in the man who deserves the credit for the idea, James Fishback,” Cuomo said.
Fishback said it was “humbling and honoring to have the president’s endorsement on this idea. I’m appreciative of the credit, but I gotta tell you the truth: the credit goes to President Trump. DOGE savings would not be possible without his leadership. We put it to paper, but President Trump is going to be the one to execute it, and he deserves the credit for it.”
Referencing an earlier discussion on the topic, Cuomo said his friend and frequent guest Bill O’Reilly “doesn’t want a check. I want a check. I’ll take his check — I don’t know how it works.”
But Cuomo cautioned that DOGE and Trump should be careful with such trial balloons.
“People want you to under-promise and over-deliver,” Cuomo said. “Because then they’re happy with the surprise. Here, isn’t there concern that setting that target of $2 trillion is way too high and that people think they’re going to get $5,000, but if you don’t get the $2 trillion, they don’t get the $5,000?”
Fishback pushed back, saying he thinks the target is “totally reasonable,” because it will “incentivize everyday Americans, whether they’re in East Palestine or in East Baltimore, to step up and say, ‘There’s waste, there’s fraud, there’s abuse in my community,’” essentially deputizing “100 million Americans to be the eyes and ears on the ground.”
Fishback suggested that the rebate checks could come as early as next summer.
“I like the idea, obviously, of finding waste, fraud, and abuse, and I like the see-something, say-something extension,” Cuomo replied. But he also raised the concern that the sweeping cuts should be going toward the federal debt and deficit.
“What matters more? Sending a check to people or lowering the deficit and trying to make a dent in the trillions and trillions that we owe in debt?” Cuomo said.
Fishback fired back: “We can do both. We absolutely can do both, Chris. We’re $37 trillion in debt, which is why our proposal calls for 80% of the savings to go toward paying down the debt and only 20% going directly to taxpayers.”
Fishback emphasized that the money “isn’t a handout.”
“This was taxpayers’ money that was sent to D.C. in the first place,” he said. “It wasn’t sent to D.C. to then be quickly spent on a DEI musical or a transgender opera in Colombia. It was sent to D.C. to support Americans.”
Watch the entire exchange in the video above.
The post Chris Cuomo Gets Giddy Over $5,000 Per-Person ‘DOGE Dividend’ Proposal: ‘I Want the Check!’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
