MS NOW Reporters Hit the Road and Find Anger, Pain and Disillusion in Trump’s America

“This could be the final straw for a lot of people, for a lot of people in this industry, man,” Richard Osburn, a Florida fisherman, told MS NOW’s Alex Tabet on March 20. “I mean, we’re already taxed to death on everything, the cost of everything. Tackle, the cost of operation, and then the fuel going up. It could be a nail in the coffin for a lot of people. And it’s sad.”

It’s the kind of story Tabet has heard often in the last several months — as he and his cohorts have hit the road to talk to everyday, working-class people in President Donald Trump’s America.

“[I’ve asked] people to describe how they’re feeling about the economy in one word,” Tabet told Mediaite in a recent interview. “And some of the words that they mentioned were ‘desolate,’ ‘really bad,’ ‘awful,’ ‘ridiculous,’ ‘horrible,’ ‘a tragedy,’ and ‘really, really bleak.'”

Amid the never-ending parade of pundits and pols, these are the voices seldom heard on cable news. The fisherman struggling to buy tackle. The elderly woman dependent on food stamps. The farmer who needs to scrape up enough cash for fertilizer to avoid the crushing disaster of a missed harvest. MS NOW and its team of correspondents are trying to change that.

MS NOW’s Laura Haefeli spoke with that farmer — an Arizona man named John Boelts — in an interview she says “really stuck with me.” And Haefeli, in speaking with Boelts, learned just how quickly the faraway developments in Iran can hit home.

“When fuel and fertilizer prices spike because of instability tied to places like the Strait of Hormuz, he feels it immediately,” Haefeli told Mediaite. “He told me one missed harvest could mean a million-dollar loss. What hit me is how little margin he has. Ninety percent of farms in this country are family-run. These are the people feeding America, and they are getting crushed.”

She added, “The little guy is the one paying the price for global conflict. Decisions made at the highest levels are taking food off farmers’ tables and off American families’ plates. You see it in higher diesel, more expensive fertilizer, and rising grocery prices. Family farms and everyday Americans do not have the cushion to absorb that. So you see people in Arizona choosing to walk to work in 106-degree weather as opposed to drive. You hear from neighbors who tell you they are choosing which groceries are crucial and what can be left behind.”

It is one thing to look at a poll, such as the AP/NORC survey from Tuesday, showing 70 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy. It is another thing to hear it directly from those struggling to make ends meet. To see pain on the faces of people just trying to get by.

“Chandra Malone stands out because she was dressed in a pirate costume and became very emotional,” MS NOW’s Rosa Flores told Mediaite, recalling a conversation she had with a No Kings protester at a demonstration in Austin, TX. “She said she’s 62, on a fixed income, lost her food stamps, and with gas prices soaring, she stays home to save money.”

But what particularly resonated with Flores was Malone’s protest attire.

“She said she was dressed as a pirate to take America back,” Flores said. “It’s the mix of emotion and fighting spirit that’s hard to forget.”

Now, of course, a No Kings protest in Austin is not exactly the ideal place to capture the vox populi. But such settings have been the exception rather than the rule for these MS NOW person-on-the-street interviews. The network’s correspondents want to hear from everyone — from No Kings demonstrators to Trump rallygoers, and everyone in between.

Tabet explained how he goes about finding people to accurately gauge public sentiment as best he can.

“Obviously, we’re here in Florida, which leans red. I wanted to make sure that I was in a county that was emblematic of the state,” Tabet said — as he was shooting a segment on gas prices. “So we went up to Port St. Lucie, which is more in the more conservative county than where I’m based, which is West Palm Beach…. And then you try to pick a neighborhood that is emblematic of the country overall socio-economically. Not too rich … trying to pick out a neighborhood or an area that will get you a strong sampling of how people across the state and across the country are feeling.”

And that’s the process that has led him to people like Rafael Munoz, who told Tabet that he was such an ardent Trump supporter that he named his junk removal company MAGA. But in an interview on March 31, Munoz told Tabet he wanted to see the president get tougher.

“As the commander-in-chief, you gotta take it into your own hands, regardless,” Munoz said. He added, “Like we say in Spanish, somebody with cojones. You know, somebody with some balls to get in there and be daddy.”

That’s certainly not the kind of take you’d expect to hear on MS NOW. But it’s the kind of take Alex Tabet wants to present because it’s authentic.

“Whether it’s a Trump rally, or a Harris rally, or a gas station parking lot, or wherever I go talk to people. I’ve learned not to be surprised,” Tabet said. He added, “I think it’s important because obviously you hear from the politicians and you hear from the commentators. But really in a democracy, the power comes from the people.”

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