A CNN panel was not buying into a CEO’s viral comparison between “tax the rich” calls and “disgusting racial slurs,” with one former Republican congressman telling the billionaire to “take a history lesson.”

On CNN’s Table for Five on Saturday, the panel debated Vornado Realty Trust CEO Steve Roth comparing “tax the rich” calls from Democrats like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) to “disgusting racial slurs.”

“I must say that I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ — quote, tax the rich — when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs,” Roth said.

Roth made his comment following Mamdani receiving backlash for pushing a new tax proposal while standing outside the New York home of billionaire Ken Griffin.

“I don’t think they’re being demonized, I think they’re being held accountable,” PoliticsGirl podcast host Leigh McGowan said in reaction to Roth’s comments.

McGowan got into a heated exchange with New York Post writer Lydia Moynihan, who didn’t defend Roth’s specific comparison, but did defend billionaires, arguing people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos pay plenty in taxes and create jobs.

Moynihan declared billionaires like Musk have helped make “our standard living better than any other group of people in any other time.”

McGowan accused her of “shilling” for billionaires.

Former Republican congressman Denver Riggleman offered the sharpest criticism of Roth, though he acknowledged Mamdani’s video outside Griffin’s home was also wrong.

He said:

I think maybe take a history lesson. That’s the first thing here because we if we go back to the base here, oh tax the rich, I feel is as bad as a racial slur, well, maybe if we back, you know, to slavery, maybe we go to some of those [times], it might not be as bad as a racial slur. It’s so ludicrous that it’s almost hard for anybody to say, “Really? Do you mean that?” You might be a little hurt. I understand your heart’s a little hurt, you’re crying a little bit, but that’s a lot different than a racial slur, saying tax the rich. It’s different though with Ken Griffin. The issue there is when you’re outside somebody’s house there is a bit of a threshold you’re crossing. I think we have two different things here.

National Review writer Noah Rothman agreed the comparison was ridiculous, though did warn about rising Marxism and aggressive attitudes towards the rich.

“Denver, I take your point. It’s not the same as racial slurs,” Rothman said. “And it’s not the same is a racial slur in this country. However, there’s a Marxian movement here that is quite violent and does seek to mete out violence against people based on class and the history of the planet Earth is one of class warfare. That can be quite bloody and dangerous. You have to be aware of that.”

“I understand what you are talking about from a Marxian side… What matters is that language matters,” Riggleman said later.  “And if you’re saying that the tax of the rich just as a bad as racial slurs, you sort of cross the line to something that’s insane.”

Watch above via CNN.

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