Upset with prospective 2020 presidential candidates Howard Schultz and Michael Bloomberg blasting Senator Elizabeth Warren’s far-left proposal for a “wealth tax” on people’s assets, on Wednesday afternoon, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur complained that the billionaires “have more wealth and everybody else combined” with “almost no middle class any longer” in the U.S. At that point, Commentary Magazine Editor John Podhoretz tore apart her “crazy” assertion.

After Tur and left-wing pundit Zerlina Maxwell, SiriusXM’s Director of Progressive Programming, applauded the latest piece of Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign platform, Podhoretz pointed out how radical the idea was:

It is an expropriation money, money sitting in the bank, money that is, you know, calculated to be worth – or stocks or properties – that are calculated to be worth X hundred million dollars, and then you take two percent off the top of that....we have never in this country done anything remotely like it. We don’t do it because we tax earnings. We do not believe the government has the right to take/seize property from people simply because of the fact that they have more money.

Tur dismissed his objections as she made this stunning false claim: “You have people like Howard Schultz, Mike Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, the list goes on, who make tons of money....you have this class of people who have more wealth and everybody else combined and almost no middle class any longer, and people who have no money whatsoever who are basically living on the poverty line.”

Clearly taken aback by the bizarre statement, Podhoretz questioned: “We have no middle class any longer?” Tur confidently declared: “We have a much smaller class than we historically used to.” Podhoretz countered: “No, we don’t.” After Tur doubled down on her fake news, Podhoretz added: “No, we don’t. That’s actually not true.”

Attempting to explain away her faulty argument, Tur cited the government shutdown as evidence: “We just had a government shutdown where 800,000 federal workers were missing one or two paychecks and a number of them said that they were worried about paying groceries because they couldn’t –” Podhoretz interjected: “That doesn’t mean that they’re not the middle class.” Tur declared: “But living paycheck to paycheck is not middle class.”

Still baffled by her remarks, Podhoretz provided a fact check: “Sure it is....Middle class is an income level.” A 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that 52 percent of Americans met the income definition of "middle class."

Maxwell tried to rush to Tur’s defense: “Yes, but if wages are not growing and the cost of living is higher then certainly the income level that you’re talking about that used to be middle class is no longer that. You’re actually working poor.”

“That is just simply incorrect,” Podhoretz noted. Maxwell fretted, “If you are living paycheck to paycheck and you cannot buy food for your family, how is that middle class?” Podhoretz offered some facts: “The median income in this country has gone up $6,000 in the last two years from 47 to $53,000 a year.”

Continuing to stand by her false reporting, Tur sneered: “So everyone’s doing fine?” Podhoretz hit back: “I’m not saying everyone’s doing fine, but you just said that there’s no middle class anymore. That’s a crazy thing to say, Katy.”

Tur insisted: “The strength of the middle class does not match what it used to be.” An exasperated Podhoretz sarcastically replied: “Okay, watch the 2020 election. The entire 2020 election is going to be fought trying to get middle class voters to vote for you. If there are no people in the middle class, that’s a dumb strategy.”

MSNBC hosts like Tur are so steeped in left-wing ideology that they are willing to completely abandon factual journalism in a desperate effort to boost liberal politicians and their dubious class-warfare politics.

Here are excerpts of the lengthy January 30 discussion: