NewsMax Anchor Claims Americans Using SNAP Benefits to ‘Get Their Weaves’ Done

Right-wing NewsMax anchor Rob Schmitt claimed Friday that SNAP recipients use the benefits not to procure much-needed food, but to “get their weaves” done.

Schmitt made the eyebrow-raising comment while interviewing Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on the food stamp program relied upon by some 42 million Americans that is set to expire on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.

“I don’t think Trump’s going to allow the leadership to let Chuck Schumer save face on this,” Schmitt said of the shutdown. “I think he’s going to make them come back and say, ‘Reopen it, or we’re just going to continue this forever. You’re going to have to own this SNAP mayhem and whatever the hell these people do if they don’t get these benefits.’ You’re going to start having riots and looting. What do you think happens?” he asked Johnson.

“That’s been our reasonable response every time they want to do something like SNAP,” Johnson said. “Well, no, you fund SNAP by voting for the continuing resolution.”

Schmitt continued:

This is a program that has exploded over the last 20 years, and we are just dumping 100 billion a year into a program that we all know is being so woefully corrupted and exploited. People are selling their benefits. People are using them to get their nails done, to get their weaves and their hair. I mean, this is a this is a really ugly program. It’s weird to me to hear Josh Hawley screaming that we have to protect this and that. We’re not talking about why is it so ridiculously expensive and exploited and what can we do to make it better.

Johnson claimed that since SNAP was created in the 1970s, “we would fluctuate somewhere between 6 and 10% of Americans on food stamps, right? Then Obama came in, dramatically increased flex eligibility — now between 10 and 15%. And now you have 42 million Americans — 12, 12.3% of our population — on food stamps. That is not a metric of success, it’s a metric of failure. And no, I mean, that program needs to be dramatically reformed. We are making way too many Americans dependent on government.”

As the USDA notes, SNAP benefits may be spent on food items like fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry, bread, and snacks — but not trips to the hair salon.

Watch the clip above via NewsMax.