Kevin O’Leary and Matt Taibbi on Power, Money, and What’s Breaking America

The Chris Cuomo Project

Chris Cuomo

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.5 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Cuomo highlights key moments from this week’s Cuomo Mornings on SiriusXM, bringing together two conversations that cut through noise and ideology. Kevin O’Leary joins to break down the reality of the U.S. economy beneath the headlines — from tariffs and affordability to why small businesses are getting squeezed while markets stay near record highs. Cuomo presses O’Leary on whether Trump’s policies are helping everyday Americans or quietly undercutting the very entrepreneurs they depend on heading into the midterms. Independent journalist Matt Taibbi follows with a wide-ranging discussion on press freedom, political instability, and the dangerous incentives driving modern media. Taibbi explains why journalists don’t have special rights under the law — and why that makes government pressure on reporters even more alarming — while Cuomo challenges both parties on escalation, outrage economics, and leadership failures fueling national instability. Callers also dive into press freedom, the arrest of Don Lemon, and growing concern over how far the government can go before journalism itself is treated as a crime. Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Get the right life insurance for you, for less, and save more than fifty percent at https://selectquote.com/chrisc Refresh your wardrobe with Quince—go to https://quince.com/cuomo for free shipping and 365-day returns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:41.0	Talking about the economic realities here in America, what matters and why people should believe that the Trump administration may be doing the right things for the many instead of the few,
0:46.1	which I don't agree with, but it's not about what I think. It's about what we know.
0:53.5	Kevin O'Leary joins me. You know him. One of Dusty's favorite people, Mr. Wonderful, from Shark Tank.
0:54.7	It's good to have you, friend.
0:59.1	Great to be here. Thank you very much for taking the time and the opportunity.
1:05.0	How do you see, I was making the case before you came on, that all of this division and clickbait is distracting us from economic data that just came out again to reinforce the
1:10.3	idea that America is struggling against a K-shaped economy, which of you, of course, know what that is, but for the folks getting where they got to be this morning, just a quick reminder, K-shaped looks like the letter K, one prong going up, is the few, the top, doing better on the curve and the many lagging behind.
1:29.9	How do you see it?
1:31.7	Well, we've always had economic disparity for 200 years in America as a democracy
1:38.0	because the economy is built on the fundamental engine of entrepreneurship.
1:42.1	The idea that one third of the population
1:44.8	creates the jobs for other two thirds is a proven model. Not everybody can be an entrepreneur. Not
1:50.7	everybody should try and become one, but the ones that do create companies. Some of them
1:56.2	become behemoths, you know, talk about SpaceX merger with XAI.
2:01.6	That's a big deal.
2:02.6	That's an entrepreneur named Elon Musk.
2:04.6	Everybody knows who he is.
2:05.6	But the majority of jobs in America are created by companies between 5 and 500 employees.
2:12.6	And so that is 64% of job creation.
	...

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