Although Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives following last week’s midterm elections, the gains they made were far below what had been predicted.
Franklin Foer writes for The Atlantic, and he contends the results were due to Americans rejecting “election deniers.” However, others say they come down to President Joe Biden having fooled his voters.
Judge Jeanine Pirro: Student debt promise was pre-election “a buyout”
Foer argued in a piece published this week that “But Biden had more faith in the American people than the commentariat or his political adversaries did.”
“He intuited that voters would rise above their economic self-interest to prevent election deniers from seizing power,” the writer went on to insist.
Yet during an episode of Fox News’ “The View,” New York Judge Jeanine Pirro put forward a far more cynical theory, saying that the president had effectively bought votes.
She pointed to Biden’s announcement this past August that his administration would allow making less than $125,000 per year to unload $10,00 worth of debt on to taxpayers.
The figure rose to $20,000 for those who attended college using Pell Grants. What’s more, the plan would cap repayment at 5% of a borrower’s monthly income.
In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023.
I’ll have more details this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/kuZNqoMe4I
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 24, 2022
“I’ll tell you what won this election for the Democrats: Sure, the young people came out vote; they got paid – I mean, they got their student loans paid back,” Pirro declared. “It was a buyout.”
Former Sanders campaign staffer says president deceived borrowers
Interestingly, Piro isn’t the only one to advance this theory, as a former 2020 presidential campaign staffer for Bernie Sanders has as well.
Briahna Joy Gray pointed out in a on Twitter last Friday how a federal judge ruled immediately after the election that Biden’s student loan plan is unconstitutional, something she says the president knew would happen.
“They used the promise of student debt cancellation to induce young voter turnout — knowing it wasn’t going anywhere bc they relied on faulty legal authority,” Gray wrote. “Hard to convince me the Biden admin didn’t do this intentionally.”