This writer will confess she laughed out loud at this NBC News story, because it's that absurd. This also tells her that, despite a lot of debate around the tariff issue, the Left can't articulate any actual opposition to it.
If you don't know what the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is (it's been a while since AP U.S. History), here's a recap from Grok:
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, officially known as the Tariff Act of 1930, was a U.S. law signed into effect on June 17, 1930, by President Herbert Hoover. It raised tariffs (taxes) on over 20,000 imported goods to historically high levels, aiming to protect American farmers and industries from foreign competition during the early stages of the Great Depression.
The act was sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot (Republican from Utah) and Representative Willis C. Hawley (Republican from Oregon). It increased the average tariff on dutiable imports from about 38% to roughly 45-50%, depending on the product.
And let's be real, no one save for historians and economists really knows Smoot-Hawley these days.
Yet NBC News pulls out the great-granddaugther of one of the Act's sponsors as an authority on the issue:
Her great-grandfather was behind the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act — which many economic historians believe worsened the Great Depression. She thinks Trump’s tariffs are "terrible." https://t.co/1Nx1wpBuAU
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 3, 2025
They write:
Carey Stewart Cezar, a retired nurse who lives in Baltimore, watched with dismay Wednesday as President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports.
Cezar voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election and opposes Trump’s economic policies. But she said she has another reason to be skeptical of Trump’s tariffs: She is a descendant of one of the legislators behind the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, a law that many economic historians believe worsened the Great Depression.
'I think it’s a terrible idea and potentially devastating,' Cezar, 70, said in a phone interview Wednesday, a few hours after Trump announced plans to impose duties on goods brought into the United States from other countries. 'I think people don’t remember all the harm caused by tariffs in our history.'
Instead of talking to any of those economic historians, they talk to a retired nurse. Who is about as qualified to discuss economic policy as this writer is qualified to discuss Naval strategy because her dad served during Vietnam: that is to say, not at all.
But you do you, NBC News.
So her expertise on the matter is that her dad’s dad’s dad was a U.S. Representative in the 1920’s?
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) April 3, 2025
'Trust the experts!'
Or something.
Wow, grandchild of someone who did something similar in 1930 (pre-WWII, pre-Bretton Woods and establishment of the US dollar as the global currency) has thoughts on something 95 years later
— Mike Moss (@_MikeMoss) April 3, 2025
Grandchild
So newsy
And they wonder why no one trusts media anymore.
Total mystery.
Are you going to ask the guy that cleans the toilets next?
— mikesra1 (@mikesra1) April 3, 2025
Depends on who his great-grandfather was.
The tariffs ARE terrible, but not as terrible as this “news” story. You clowns.
— Robert T. Ives (@Justalurke) April 3, 2025
They're a full-blown three-ring circus.
The retired nurse said tariffs are bad so it must be true
— TM (@t_med22) April 3, 2025
They're going to ask an electrician about foreign policy next.
This is the most hilarious premise for a news story I’ve ever seen.
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) April 3, 2025
NBC contacted the great-granddaughter of Hawley of Smoot-Hawley fame about Trump’s tariffs. She’s a retired nurse who voted for Kamala. https://t.co/kNEBB8BIWj
Absolutely comical.
No. The national news is not brain dead. You are for watching them seek out a nurse for her economic opinion. Why her? Her great grandfather authored a tariff plan 100yrs ago. This is the definition of sycophancy. Wonder if anyone at @NBCNews ever dreamt of being a journalist. https://t.co/2v9DdcRfKv
— Michael Rentiers (@michaelrentiers) April 3, 2025
That's why we're here to mock them for this.
The media: "Why does no one trust us to deliver the news?"
— Solomon Kane 🦬 (@SolomonKane1928) April 3, 2025
Also the media: "We found a nurse to opine on tariffs!" https://t.co/TDe0ij1gnh
Bang up job, NBC.
There's reaching, there's spin, and then there's whatever this is. https://t.co/3LUV5ym0D0
— Dan Minucci (@HouseofMourthia) April 3, 2025
We'd call it grasping at straws, but it's so much more pathetic than that.
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