Briahna Joy Gray: Democrats ‘ignorant’ of ‘political consequences’ to resuming student loan payments

Briahna Joy Gray, the host of the Bad Faith podcast, said Democrats are being “ignorant” of the “political consequences” of resuming student loan payments after the Biden administration said the payments will restart in February.

A number of Democratic lawmakers and organizations have pressed President Biden to cancel federally held student loan debt through executive action or at least to extend a pause on payments that was implemented during the pandemic.

“Instead,” Gray said Tuesday on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” “during a midterm election year, when the COVID pandemic is in full swing and people are suffering the economic effects of said pandemic, he is choosing to be the one to turn student debt back on when Donald Trump wanted to turn student debt off.”

“It seems the Democrats are either ignorant of or indifferent to the political consequences of that action, not to mention the moral consequences of it,” she added.

An administration official told The Hill the Biden administration is working to reform the student loan system. 

“In the coming months we will unveil similar regulatory improvements to, income-driven repayment, borrower defense to repayment, and closed school discharges among others. We’re also reshaping the loan servicing environment to better emphasize borrower outcomes and protections. These steps take time but we are working to deliver a better and fairer student loan system for borrowers,” the official said.

Gray has consistently slammed President Biden for not living up to one of his campaign promises to cancel at least $10,000 of student debt for everyone. 

She previously said Biden was “playing the fool” and that he is able to cancel the student debt by executive action.

“Forty-four million Americans have student loan debt. Forty-four million Americans who per the Democrats, who like to crow and brag about this, are disproportionately Democrats, right? The democratic base is disproportionately college educated so the Democratic party is saying to that very group that they need to come enthusiastically to turn out for them in midterms, ‘we are going to screw you during an election year,’” Gray said.