Fox News continues pointing to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's vast wealth as proof of his fitness for the presidency. On the October 27 edition of Outnumbered, co-host Andrea Tantaros downplayed criticism of Trump's claim at a New Hampshire town hall event that he started his business with only "a small loan of a million dollars," which a CNN analysis concluded would be roughly equal to $6.8 million today. Tantaros argued that Trump did more with that loan than a liberal ever could “because they know nothing about running a business,” but an analysis by CNN Money noted that Trump “has filed four business bankruptcies.” From Fox's Outnumbered:
Fox Host: Trump Made Billions From “Small” Million Dollar Loan, Unlike Liberals Who Would Blow It Because They “Know Nothing” About Business
Written by Media Matters Staff
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ANDREA TANTAROS: [Donald] Trump is taking a lot of heat this week for a comment that he made about getting a "small loan of a $1 million from his father. People are impaling him, mostly the media, for this comment. But when you look at $1 million in New York, and you look at what he was able to do with $1 million, and frankly, most people, especially liberals, no offense, Julie --
JULIE ROGINSKY: Nobody's giving me $1 million.
TANTAROS: They would blow that million dollars because they know nothing about running a business. As a businessman, are you impressed with a million dollars to what he has done?
WILLIE ROBERTSON: Yeah, that's one thing that's always impressed me about Donald Trump. If you're going to be this successful in New York City, which I have no experience other than visiting here, but I'm assuming you have to work with a lot of different people to be successful in this city. And he's dealt with big numbers. He's dealt with this company. And he said a small loan, I thought it was funny. I guess it's all perception, right? Where you're at in life. That, you know, but I think he built a huge empire. That is impressive to me.
ROGINSKY: Well, let's be a little clear, daddy also opened up a lot of doors for Donald Trump, and I think all of us know it's not so much even the million dollar loan, although that would be helpful to me and to everybody else.
SANDRA SMITH: What does that matter though?
ROGINSKY: Opening doors? When your father is in the same business that you're in and is able to secure and to vouch for you and for your enterprises?
SMITH: I mean to seize and take the opportunity that's in front of you, and run with it.
ROGINSKY: It's a great opportunity, but listen, let's not -- I'm not diminishing what Donald Trump has been able to accomplish. But let's be clear that I think if any of us started a business in the same real estate market that he started a business in, we wouldn't be able to have the doors open for us that he did.
TANTAROS: But Julie, so many people inherit money and they blow it and they fall on their face and he has sustained it for decades.
ROGINSKY: Agreed. Well, first of all he has blown it about three times with business bankruptcies. But I also will say this about him. You know, when you're running for president, saying oh, somebody gave me a small loan of a million dollars, doesn't sound so good. That is not a small loan to most people.
TANTAROS: Is it better than we were dead broke?
ROGNISKY: No, same thing, that was a stupid thing to say as well. So I think, you know, what's good for the goose, you guys. Everybody attacked Hillary for saying that. I thought it was a dumb thing to say. But saying you got a little tiny loan?
SMITH: I think you have to be careful about taking that out of the context. And I think he's saying that was a small loan in comparison to what he has been able to do over the course of his business career and his life and his personal goals, and what he has achieved as far as billions of dollars in the bank. I think that is where it comes from.