I quite enjoyed the impromptu rant that CNBC’s Rick Santelli provided us the other day. However, I was perturbed when I learned that he’s claiming the White House is threatening him and his family because of that rant. Below is an exchange between Santelli and G. Gordon Liddy on Liddy’s radio show:
SANTELLI: He started that press conference saying, “I don’t know where he lives, I don’t know where his house is.” This is the Press Secretary of the White House. Is that the kind of thing we want? Is that –
LIDDY: It’s a veiled threat.
SANTELLI: It really is. [...] I don’t really want to be a spokesman, but I really am very proud of a) the response I’m getting, which is overwhelmingly positive, and b) discourse, that is debate. That if the pressure and the heat I’m taking from the White House – the fact my kids are nervous to go to school – I can take that, okay.
Dude, relax. There is no way in hell the White House would ever publicly threaten the safety of one of its citizens, particularly over something so trivial. Privately, sure. Publicly, not so much. Here’s what Gibbs actually said:
I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives,” Gibbs said during the daily briefing. “But the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgage, stay in their jobs, pay their bills to send their kids to school, and to hope that they don’t get sick or somebody they care for gets sick that sends them into bankruptcy. I think we left a few months ago the adage that if it was good for a derivatives trader, that it was good for main street. I think the verdict is in on that.
Gibbs was obviously making a point that Santelli is a bit out of touch with those Americans currently experiencing financial difficulty. Clearly, Santelli needs a drink. Someone please buy him one. And then ask him for help paying your mortgage.
