Always Right with Bob Frantz: Mike Gibbons Clears Up Viral Video’s Statement About Middle-Class Taxation

Monday morning on Always Right with Bob Frantz, weekday mornings on AM 1420 The Answer, host Frantz welcomed GOP Ohio Senate hopeful Mike Gibbons to the show to clear up what he meant in video audio that recently resurfaced from a September podcast that has gone viral.

Frantz: So over the weekend, some video/audio surfaced from this past September. It’s not that it was hidden, but I don’t think too many people saw it until recently because suddenly, boom, there it was on The AP. Boom, there it was on Breitbart. Boom, there it was on The Blaze.

It was on virtually every website going viral, as it pertains to the GOP Senate primary to replace Rob Portman. The front runner in the polls, Mike Gibbons, in comments he made back in September on a podcast, questioning whether or not the middle class is paying any kind of a fair share, has gone viral, and so has the criticism of Mike Gibbons.

I wanted to give him a chance to explain and answer the questions about this. So joining us right now is still the front runner, although the race is very tight, about three weeks or so now away from Election day with early voting already underway.

Josh Mandel and J.D. Vance are pretty much neck-and-neck right there with Mike Gibbons now. But joining us is Cleveland businessman and GOP candidate Mike Gibbons. Mike, good morning.

Gibbons: Good morning, Bob. How are you?

Frantz: I’m doing well, thanks. How was your weekend?

Yes, Every Kid

Gibbons: Well, it was okay. I had a little bit of time off, not much, but it’s a pretty big grind. I’ve got to watch these commercials where things are taken out of context, where things are twisted. I just listened to you talk about this podcast.

Frantz: Yes. Before you respond to it, Mike, I want to play the part that is the 30 seconds that have been circulating and going viral, and get you to kind of give context to it, give your explanation to it.

Gibbons: Sure.

Frantz: And we’ll do that now. So let’s listen. This is the 30 seconds of the podcast from September of last year: Mike Gibbons on taxation for the wealthy and taxation for the middle class.

(Mike Gibbons clip plays)

The top 20 percent of earners in the United States pay 82 percent of federal income tax. And if you do the math and 45 percent to 50 percent don’t pay any income tax.

You can see the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share depending on how you wanted to define it.

Now the problem is you need the middle class to win an election. So the narrative is the middle class is getting screwed and the wealthy, the elite are cheating everybody.

Frantz: So, Mike, let’s talk about the middle portion of that, where after you break down that the top 20 percent of earners pay 82 percent of the taxes. And then you say 45 percent to 50 percent.

Gibbons: Federal income tax.

Frantz: Yes. Federal income tax. And then you say 45 percent to 50 percent don’t pay any income tax, which I’m assuming you mean those are the people that are below the poverty line and don’t pay federal income taxes at all. Then you say the middle class isn’t really paying any kind of a fair share. What does that mean?

Gibbons: I was discussing the Democrat narrative. I was defending the Trump tax cuts. And my point was that the Democrat narrative is totally false. First of all, I don’t believe in increasing taxes on anybody. I’ve taken a pledge. I took one in 2018. I took it again.

My whole goal is to lower taxes. And we have to do that by getting rid of the ridiculous spending going on at the federal level. But my attack was on the Democrat narrative. And I said these guys say nobody pays their fair share.

And the reality is they never define what that fair share is. I’d like to see lower taxes across the board. And you know what the Democrats have been saying about the term tax cuts. And I said the problem is nobody ever says what a fair share is.

And I was saying it more sarcastically against the Democratic narrative, which is never true. And all I can say is that I believe in lower taxes. And you know how I grew up. Taxes hit us hard.

When I first started in this campaign. I get a lot of good feedback from people. And I’d say, how come we’re not in first place? And they go, you don’t want to be in first place, Mike. They’re going to make up stuff from whole cloth. And that’s what’s going on literally every day. If I see one more commercial, I just turn the TV off now.

Frantz: You are going to have to turn your TV off a lot now because they’re about to make a ton of commercials on this. Your opponents are going to, not only in the primary, you’re going to get this from your opponents. But if you end up winning the nomination on May 3rd, you’re going to get this from Ryan’s camp.

Gibbons: Right. Absolutely.

Frantz: And let me play the end of it again, because when I first heard it and when I played it in the open this morning right after 9:00, I was dismayed by your tone at the end.

When you kind of say that the narrative is the middle class doesn’t pay its fair share and that the wealthy are trying to screw you. I’ll play this again and then get your context.

(Mike Gibbons clip plays)

Now the problem is you need the middle class to win an election. So the narrative is the middle class is getting screwed and the wealthy, the elite are cheating everybody.

Frantz: It sounded in the way I described it before, it sounded like you were being very dismissive of the narrative that the middle class is getting screwed.

But what you’re saying is that you were being dismissive because you were being sarcastic that this isn’t what you think, this is what the Democrats think.

Gibbons: It isn’t at all what I think. I’m not a politician, Bob. Obviously, my campaign wants me to talk in sound bites. I guess I’d be far better off if I did. What I was saying was, Donald Trump’s tax cuts set this country back on the right track, and the Democrats are saying it was surely only in favor of the wealthy.

And the problem is, everybody‘s paying too many taxes. That’s how the Democrats pose the whole issue. They go, people aren’t paying their fair share. And by the way, I think the Democrats would like to have everybody pay more taxes, but it wasn’t what I think. It’s what the Democrats think.

Frantz: Mike, in the interest of context, is there more video of this? Obviously, there wasn’t a 30-second podcast interview. So do you have the before and the after that set up that what you were talking about?

Gibbons: I don’t.

Frantz: I can tell you, it’s got to be out there.

Gibbons: Yes.

Frantz: Well, I mean, who did the podcast? Can you contact the podcaster? I’ve said a million times, and I’ve said to Josh Mandel a million times, and to J.D. Vance a million times, I want this to be a great fair fight for this nomination because I want the right guy to emerge.

I don’t want misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or out-of-context things to define this race. So is it kind of incumbent upon you and your campaign to get it to find that?

Listen to the full interview here:

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