Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton called out CNN media reporter Brian Stelter Thursday night for “arrogantly” dismissing the experiences of Americans battling failing school districts and crumbling infrastructure.
Over 200 people were killed by Hurricane Helene, with people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia still struggling to recover from wind damage and flooding. Singleton noted that the Biden-Harris administration had given hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine compared to the response to the devastation in western North Carolina and other parts of the southeastern United States caused by the hurricane, after “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip pointed out that Russia started the Ukraine War.
READ: Harvard University Donations Plummet Following Antisemitism Controversy
“I agree with that. Putin obviously started the war. I am not negating that,” Singleton said. “My point is that a lot of people look at how much money we spent on this conflict and they‘re asking themselves, ‘My roads are crumbling, my schools suck. We just had major disasters across the country, FEMA doesn‘t have enough money.’”
“By the way, I don’t live in that country. I don‘t live in that country, by the way. America is not that horrible,” Stelter said, prompting Singleton to respond, “Brian, if you get out of New York and talk to regular people —”
Stelter interrupted Singleton, saying he wasn’t a resident of New York but was in a “normal city.”
“My roads are not — I love New York, but my roads are not crumbling, my schools don’t suck. I just get tired of the anti-America rhetoric,” Stelter claimed.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave American roads a “D” grade in March 2021, citing “staggering maintenance backlogs.” Schools have struggled to return to pre-pandemic levels of student performance, despite a $190 billion infusion from the Biden-Harris administration.
READ: Kentucky Schools Accused Of Election Interference, First Amendment Violations
After some back-and-forth, Singleton told Stelter to let him finish making his point.
“There are a lot of Americans who don’t live in great cities, who do have to send their kids to terrible schools. That is a fact because of their zip codes,” Singleton said. “And to sit here arrogantly and say, ‘My kids go to great schools, I live in a great neighborhood,’ that‘s your experience, not the experience of most people in this country.”
“The roads are crumbling? Where —” Stelter asked, with Singleton cutting him off with, “Come on, bro.”
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Android Users: Download our free app to stay up-to-date on the latest news.
Connect with us: Follow the Tampa Free Press on Facebook and Twitter for breaking news and updates.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.