CLAY: We begin, Buck Sexton, with rank hypocrisy in your home city of New York. Let me kind of set the scene here and you can also help me because you’ve dealt with events like this your entire life. So, I know. I’ve never bet to the Met Gala. It is a massive fundraising event that cost more than your average apartment building it feels like at times or what families will earn in a year.

It’s $250,000 for a table, $30,000 for a ticket, and people wear all sorts of outlandish outfits to this gala as they walk up the stairs at the Met which is a high-end art establishment in New York City. And AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, showed up in a white dress; in red writing it said, “Tax the rich,” and it exploded across the political landscape.

Let me play you the audio of AOC making her continuing failing attempts at political arguments. Here is AOC explaining why she went to the most exclusive and expensive event of the year, just about, in awful New York City wearing a “tax the rich” dress.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: When Laura and I were first kind of partnered we really started having a conversation about what it means to be working class women of color at the Met, and we said, “You know, we can’t just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall and challenge some of the institutions.” And… and, you know, while the Met is known for its — its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it.

BUCK: A conversation about it, Clay! That’s what she’s sparking with the “tax the rich” dress. Okay. Let’s break this thing down for a second. First of all, there was also the issue of none of the Met patrons — and it’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the most famous museums in the world. The Met steps are very, very well known. They’re in tons of movies and TV shows, and this is the most exclusive social event — generally speaking, some would say — in the world.

It raises about $10 million. I forget what the organization, the nonprofit is. But it’s really just like Vogue and Hollywood and all the fanciest people in the world go to this one party. And, Clay, the staff are all masked. The servers, the ushers, the security, they have to be masked. But the patrons, the people that are going to this ultrafancy party — this bacchanal of the most elite people in, certainly, left-wing Hollywood media society and politics you could possibly find — they don’t have to wear masks. There’s no science behind that, as we know.

CLAY: Right.

BUCK: So we start with that. They’re gallivanting around. I have a feeling — I know you asked me about this before the show — we’re not gonna have Fauci come out with, “Y’know, they were really reckless.” No, of course not. Somehow, Clay, Fauci never says anything to insult his constituency, which is the elite lib apparatus.

CLAY: He never spoke out about Obama’s birthday party. He is not gonna speak out about the Met. But yet when you go to a college football game, “Oh, Fauci says it’s unacceptable,” and to your point, the rank hypocrisy here is on multiple levels. You have the mostly poor people who are servers —

BUCK: Working class.

CLAY: — yeah, working class — who cannot afford to actually ever go to these events that are required to wear a mask. And you also require all of these kids that have now started school in New York that are going to public schools — I think a million of them — all over the city, they’re required to wear masks and now they’re gonna have to eat outdoors all through the winter? This is all madness.

BUCK: This is really Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake”-level stuff and as you and I know as people who like history, there’s no record of her saying it, but it’s one of those stories that’s a great story.

CLAY: It’s a great metaphor.

BUCK: Right. We love it even though Marie Antoinette never really said that and has been turned into a distant villain. Anyway, it is a “let them eat cake” moment. We’ll just go with the storyline here because in New York City, Clay, I have friends…

I just was just texting with one yesterday. They’ve got kids in the school system here, right. Remember in this city where this ultrafancy party and also people just show up. I mean, they’re dressed like clowns, the whole thing is absurd. It’s not actually aesthetically elite and people the glamour and all this stuff.

No. It’s all sort of social justice, woke bull crap and all these people pretending the people who are there are so impressive, and they’re really not. But just step back from that for a second. You have kids in New York City who are back in school; they’re still disinfecting surfaces everywhere!

CLAY: Yeah. Even though we know it doesn’t spread via surface, right? The data actually reflects that.

BUCK: There are still Plexiglas dividers in place. There’s still social distancing. They’re telling kids in New York, which is the largest public school system — obviously ’cause of population — in the whole country, they’re telling them to be prepared to eat their lunch outside for the rest of the year, which would take us deep into the winter. You’re gonna have little kids —

CLAY: Freezing.

BUCK: — freezing their butts off outside so that vaccinated, hysteric, neurotic adults who are protected by the teachers unions and therefore part of the Democrat power apparatus (sniveling), “Don’t go to bed worried at night about getting the covid from the kids ’cause the kids are little germ machines.” This is what New York City has been turned into now by the crazy libs. Where is Fauci on this one? He’s a little coward. Kind of like how he won’t come on this show even though we’ve now reached out to the White House, he’ll do every show but this show.

CLAY: Oh, yeah, of course.

BUCK: Well, I guess some conservative shows.

CLAY: Virtually every show but this one. But this is, to me, the essence of, here’s the other thing that I love and or hate about this situation in general, Buck. The media is all there covering these people as if they are heroes when, in reality, if you’re an honest media person in New York City, shouldn’t you be wondering, “Hey, how come all these super rich people can show up, not wear masks, gallivant about for a night of fun?”

And all of these kids — and, frankly, all these other places in New York, too — people can’t live their normal lives, right? And I always wonder — and I’m curious what you think about this, too — are we playing into AOC’s hands by even talking about this, right? Because the thing that’s frustrating about this is, AOC’s base is like, “Oh, it’s so brave of her to show up in a ‘tax the rich’ address. She looks fabulous. Oh, she’s fantastic.”

BUCK: Yes.

CLAY: And those people all think she’s amazing.

BUCK: No, I don’t think… To anybody who’s not a moron, she looks like a moron. That’s the reality. Now, you’re never going to reach the idiots on the left who think that AOC, whatever it is… I mean, she could walk into a room, trip and fall and get up and they would say that it was balletic and amazing and she’s a genius.

It doesn’t matter, right? But if we’re talking… There are two groups, Clay, that by pointing out being at the most elite social gathering — and when I say “elite,” it’s elitism. I’m not impressed by these people. I don’t like these people. I don’t want to be one. I went to the White House, which is many levels of celebrity coolness below… You know, they call it “nerd prom,” but they mean, “Oh, we’re actually so special.”

CLAY: White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

BUCK: No. They’re actually just jokes. But I went when I first started in media a decade ago, I said, “I’m never going back to this thing. It’s appalling.” Now, of course, a lot of conservatives won’t go because we’ve seen the way that they just rip on Republicans and the whole thing. But, Clay, with AOC, we’re speaking to everyone who listens to this show —

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: Everyone who lives in reality and sees things for what they are. We need to remind them that this is who is lecturing you about how you need to pay higher taxes and America is so racist and people who are at the top of the power structure who are luxuriating in their trip to the Met Gala and the Hamptons and their private jet travel and flying around in helicopters and getting seven-figure book deals for books that no one’s going to read, never mind buy.

And they want to lecture all the rest of us about how awful we are. We need to tell the people that see this for what it is, “You’re right. You’re not the crazy ones,” and then, to your point that you often make, those who are still open to having their minds persuaded, they need — ’cause this is a blunder. This is a… What was it, Talleyrand?

“This is worse than a mistake; it’s a blunder,” or “It’s worse than an error; it’s a blunder.” That’s what this is. She looks utterly buffoonish. And I’m sorry. The most powerful voice in the Democrat Party right now is certainly not Joe Biden. It’s probably AOC when you’re talking about at least the ability to direct the media narrative. And she’s just not smart, Clay. She’s just not very smart. I guess people don’t care.

CLAY: Yeah, I think that’s true too. What do you think she is thinking as she wakes up this morning and today?

BUCK: That she’s amazing and she’s fighting for working-class people by wearing a multi-thousand-dollar gown.

CLAY: Yeah. I just think, do you think she thinks that her “tax the rich” dress was a wild success?

BUCK: Mmmmmm. See, I at some point, what you see with her is also this melding of a politician that is also a celebrity, right?

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: It used to be politicians become celebrities. She’s really like a celebrity who is a politician now. I know she got into politics first and that’s how she made her name.

CLAY: I think it’s an interesting perspective, right?

BUCK: Yeah, I mean, she —

CLAY: How cognizant is she of what people think about her and does it in any way matter? Because celebrities, it really doesn’t, right? The reason why you wear a ridiculous dress to the Met is so people will talk about you.

BUCK: Attention.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: There is, because of her involvement in actual policy discussions — and she does wield a vote in Congress and does have actual government power at some level and a taxpayer-funded staff and all the rest of it — she’s supposed to at least stay within some bounds of intelligence and normalcy in what she’s doing and what she’s saying.

But I think that what she does here is a perfect distillation of the hypocrisy and the sanctimoniousness that are really the defining characteristics of the modern elitist Democrat. This is who they are, the, “We’re social justice warriors in fancy gowns at the Met Ggala who are gonna go hang out afterwards with Clooney and Jay-Z. This is who we are as elite Democrats. But we care so much about the power.”

Not enough to support police or there are fewer shootings so fewer working-class people get shot or to keep schools open during the pandemic while they were send their kids to private school. Clay, in every socialist society, in every communist society, there’s this kind of grotesque stratification of those at the top pretending they care about those below.

Not saying we’re creating meritocracy, not saying that the laws apply equal to everybody. No, no, we have to be at the very top because we’re the revolutionary arm! We’re the vanguard of the progressivism here, and we need some perks. We need some fancy gowns at the Met gala. This is the Democrat Party, right? You’re seeing it right now.

CLAY: I absolutely loved it when I saw it last night on social media. And I was just trying to think what the Nancy Pelosis and the people who were trying to appeal to moderate Democrats, ’cause we need to talk about the budget, which is taxing the rich — that’s their plan — and what impact of that’s gonna be, but how much of a distraction is she amid all of this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: My man Clay and I talking here about the Democrat hypocrisy. But remember, folks, we have to point it out, but it won’t change because it’s not a bug; it’s a feature. Of course, they’re hypocrites! “What are you gonna do about it, peasant?” That’s their attitude. They pretend to care about the poor while they spend all their time with the rich and trying to become very rich themselves.

It is, in fact, those who are striving, those who want the right to rise who get caught in the vise grip of Democrat tax raises, spending, all the stuff that we’re seeing right now. We know there’s a basic certainty: Democrats are in charge; they’re gonna take more money from people who are working for it. And that’s why you get the latest update here on who’s gonna be paying the taxes?

AOC wears her “tax the rich” thing. This may come as a shock to her, although she makes plenty of money; so she’s probably paying a reasonably high tax rate. And she’s not yet at that Pelosi level where the taxes don’t matter because, remember, they don’t tax wealth; they tax earnings.

It’s people that are trying to build — people in their peak earning years, who after 10 or 15 years are finally getting into those top income brackets for a period of time. They’re the ones the government’s always piling on. They don’t go after the people who inherited a billion dollars that are sitting on it, or Nancy Pelosi’s super-rich husband. Find me a prominent Democrat in Congress who talks about taxes.

Bernie Sanders is a millionaire! America is a country where we’re constantly being lectured by socialist millionaires. That’s pretty much all you need to know. Meanwhile, Democrats want to tax more of our income in general. The top individual tax rate’s supposed to rise. It’s gone to the Ways and Means Committee, but this is what the bill is gonna look like here: 39.6%, up from 37%.

The higher tax rate will kick in at $400,000 for individuals. That’s down from $523,600 for individuals. There’s more all over the place. I mean, they’re raising the corporate tax. Clay, who pays the taxes in this country? It’s actually the people who are the demonized so-called rich!

CLAY: Yes. Here’s the data.

BUCK: By the way, you make $400,000 in New York City, you’re not even close to rich.

CLAY: The bottom 50% of income earners, the bottom 50% pay 3% of all the federal income taxes in the United States. Think about that for a minute. Half of Americans pay just 3% of the overall. And then you compare that with the top 1%. The top 1% in the United States pays 40% of all federal income tax.

So the top 1% by themselves pay nearly more than the bottom 50% combined right now. And the top two earning brackets — the top 5% of earners — pay 60% of all federal income taxes. So, this is a pretty significant amount that they are already paying going forward. So, “tax the rich,” AOC? You got your wish. It’s already happening.