President Donald Trump floated $5,000 "dividend" checks to each adult American citizen if Republicans win the midterm elections, but CNN's Audie Cornish poured cold water on his pledge.
The 80-year-old president promised the payouts Wednesday night at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, saying he would issue the checks only if the GOP maintained its congressional majorities, and panelists on "CNN This Morning" were dubious.
"It's easy to make thesepromises when you know youdon't have to keep them becausehe knows he's not going to win," said former Biden White House staffer Meghan Hays. "So it's very easy to go outthere and say it, hoping thathe'll get a few extra votesevery now and then. For a low-propensity voter, that's notpaying attention, and all of asudden they're like, we'regoing to get $5,000. These areempty promises."
Vice President JD Vance made a similar promise Tuesday on Fox News, saying American workers were owed rebates from the tariffs the 80-year-old president has imposed on foreign trade partners, but Cornish found the pledges somewhat off-putting.
"One thing that's weird isafter one of the Supreme Courtrulings, the tariff money had tobe refunded," Cornish said. "There were a bunchof companies that took rebatechecks, and they did not passthem back on to the consumer. SoI'm not even sure where thisrevenue is, given that that poolwas majorly dinged for legalreasons."