This is the new Republican thing.

Well, it was always sort of Republican to label Democrats as communists or socialists. But post-Trump, and the Trump kids’ incessant talk about the “Chi-Coms” (Nothing ever about Russia), they talk about Democrats as “socialists” or “communists” because – for once – federal money is flowing downward, toward the poor and middle class, instead of upward.

Trickle-down economics is dead, for now, and low-to middle-class America can feel the difference. Republicans are angry about it.

Flippant, self-impressed, and arrogant Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana had a moment today that he surely believed would be a highlight on Fox News. Instead, it turned so disastrous for him that he had nothing to say. He went dead silent as he was utterly humiliated. More importantly, Kennedy got a free lesson in humanity, one he hadn’t earned, coming from Dr. Saule Omarova.

Dr. Omarova is president Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the United States, a rather important job, keeping track of the money held within over 1,000 banks in the United States and acting as near law enforcement with regard to those banks. She is a controversial choice because as a law professor at Cornell, she wrote articles that “reimagined” the United States financial system. She is also of Asian descent, from  Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Union republic.

Thus it was that Sen. Kennedy probably felt pretty confident (he always feels confident) and full of himself when he addressed her and said that he didn’t know whether to call her “professor” or “comrade,” a particularly ugly question given the context. Soviet and Asian.

In the background, one can hear an, “Oh my goodness,” and then with that, the “professor,” taught Kennedy a free lesson in economics, history, priorities, and humanity. A lesson he should not have enjoyed the privilege of learning.

He did get shut down, slammed down, by a humble but confident answer:

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”

Someone off-camera: “Oh my goodness.”

Dr. Saule Omarova, Biden’s comptroller currency pick: “I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.” pic.twitter.com/CEiCWNwx2N

— The Recount (@therecount) November 18, 2021

If you can, please listen. We will try to find a transcript.

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