MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lashing out at a Amazon again. Joining me right now, the host of Varney & Co., Stuart Varney, to weigh in. She does not like Amazon.
STUART VARNEY (FOX BUSINESS HOST): And she's factually completely wrong. For a start, she says Amazon pays starvation wages, direct quote, “starvation wages.” And she's taking aim at Jeff Bezos because he's a billionaire, and he's paying, quote, “starvation wages.” Now look, that may be political spin, but it's lousy, factually. I did some research, let me tell you this. Amazon pays $15 an hour to all full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers, $15 an hour across the board.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
VARNEY: Full-time workers get medical coverage, a 401(k), company-paid basic life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance, maternity and paternal leave. All of that for the full-time people at Amazon, $15 an hour for everybody. To call that starvation wages is pure nonsense. What she's trying to do is to counter Trump's prosperous economy, they got to go up against that in 2020. How do you counter it? Well you say prosperity isn't fair, not everybody's sharing it to same degree. That's political spin. I don't think it works, but remember the media is going to be amplifying this for next 18 months. You're going to hear about this a lot. It's pure political spin, factually inaccurate, and frankly, nonsense. That's my opinion.
BARTIROMO: You know, I think this is -- she's walking on thin ice because this is a dangerous move to make, Stu. Because people do not want to be lied to.
VARNEY: Right, and that is a lie. I mean if you want to be real harsh about it, that is a lie.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
VARNEY: If you're working for Amazon, you're not starving. That's it.
