Trump biographer rains hell on 'atrocious' right-wingers claiming old people should die for the stock market

On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's "AM Joy," Pulitzer Prize-winning Trump biographer David Cay Johnston excoriated the Republicans who are suggesting older people should be willing to risk dying of COVID-19 for the sake of keeping the economy running.

"I'm going to go to you on this first the idea that people over 50 should be prepared to die — that is millions of people — should be prepared to die in order to keep the stock market buoyed and keep the economy humming in a country that is shut down because lots of people are dying," said host Joy Reid. "As an economics guy, how do you strike it? Just the ethics are insane, bananarama crazy."

"These are very religious people who worship the House of Mammon, and they have forgotten about the sanctity of human life," said Johnston. "The size of this problem is enormous. I wrote a piece a week ago pointing out this last 18 months, which is the official position of the Trump administration, the minimum cost will be $5 trillion. If it lasts two years, as the German health officials say, we're looking north of $7 trillion. Those are very conservative numbers."

"The cost will be enormous, but what about human life? What has happened to respect for human life?" he continued. "It is atrocious to hear ... Glenn Beck and the lieutenant governor of Texas, talking about their religiosity, to take these kinds of positions."

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