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MSNBC Becomes Platform For Anti-Gay Hate Group’s Lies (Video)

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In a stunning choice Wednesday morning, MSNBC invited a spokesperson for an anti-gay hate group to opine on the anti-gay “religious freedom” laws sweeping the nation. Watch how she lies about verifiable facts – without any response from the MSNBC anchor.

Note: Sandy Rios segment begins at about the 3:45 mark.

It’s not uncommon for Fox News to invite members of anti-gay hate groups, radical religious right pastors, preachers, and politicians onto its shows, and to offer them unfettered access to spew hate and lies. That’s just how Fox News works.

But MSNBC, after years of pushback by LGBT activists, the LGBT media, and LGBT organizations has wisely not called upon the Tony Perkins and Bryan Fischers to offer opinion or debate issues like marriage and family and discrimination with any regularity for quite some time now.

Until today.

During “News Nation” with anchor Tamron Hall, MSNBC gave a wide platform to Sandy Rios, a spokesperson for the certified anti-gay hate group American Family Association. 

Rios, who is also a Fox News contributor and hosts a radio show on the American Family Association’s Radio Network, is well know to many LGBT activists, and her animus and hate is well documented by both Right Wing Watch and GLAAD.

Via GLAAD’s Commentator Accountability Project, some background on Sandy Rios:

“When homosexual men get together, they don’t look for activities to enjoy common interests, they look for activities to find and expedite sex,” she once said.

Equated the love shared by two men to the “love” that kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro had for the young women he kept captive as slaves; when confronted, doubled down

When Supreme Court overturned criminal bans on gay sex, Rios described it as a “sad moment in American history;” said it was “an immoral act” on par with “the Dred Scott decision declaring slaves two-thirds persons“

MSNBC did not mention any of this, other than identifying Rios as the Director of Governmental Affairs for the American Family Association.

During the lengthy debate with Human Rights Campaign’s Jason Rahlan over Indiana and Arkansas’ anti-gay “religious freedom” legislation, Rios played extremely quick and loose with facts. In fact, she lied.

Here’s how Rios described the case of Washington state florist Baronelle Stutzman, who just lost her discrimination case over her refusal to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.

“Barronelle Stutzman, 71-years old, a grandmother, who owns a floral shop in Oregon, inherited from her mother, who has gay employees, serves gay people all the time. A gay couple came to her, asked her to do her artistry for their wedding, she said, ‘I can’t do that. I don’t agree with gay marriage.'”

“They’re trying to take Baronelle’s homes, they’re coming after her trying to take her business and by they, I mean the government in Washington State,” Rios falsely claimed.

“Because she doesn’t have a right, as a 72-year old grandmother, to say, ‘No, I love you, you’re my customer, but I don’t agree with gay marriage and I just can’t give you my artistry.”

Later, HRC’s Rahlan responded. “At the end of the day there is no religious freedom crisis in America the only crisis is a rising wave of anti-LGBT legislation.”

So Rios claimed:

“Ask Baronelle Stutzmann, who’s losing her house. Ask the young bakers who lost their business and have five little children to support and have like multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines because they wouldn’t do a cake for a gay wedding.”

So, what’s the actual truth?

Stutzman has been fined a total of $1001 and ordered to obey the law in Washington, like everyone else, and not discriminate.

But Rios claims the state is trying to punish her by confiscating her homes and business.

And no one, not Tamron Hall, not HRC’s Jason Rahlan, pushed back. She was allowed to lie.

Rios also claimed, again, falsely, that, “The same thing happened to a young couple, Aaron and Melissa Klein, who had a cake shop.”

She is of course referring to Melissa and Aaron Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa. After they refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, they chose to close their storefront store and do business online, presumably to avoid Oregon’s nondiscrimination laws.

“So now they’ve been fined, hundreds of thousands of dollars, they have five small children, they’ve had to give up the business – this is the part of the story that people are not hearing.”

What’s the real truth?

The case has been argued and the Kleins have been found guilty, but no fine has been set whatsoever. It could go as high as $150,000, but again, no fine or final judgment has been set.

Yet Rios claims, “they’ve been fined, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” and “they’ve had to give up the business.”

Neither HRC nor MSNBC pushed back, they just allowed false statements to be accepted as truth.

Rios also engaged in this debate with Rahlan, after he mentioned Apple CEO Tim Cook, NIKE’s CEO and President, NASCAR, the NCAA, Angie’s List, and others who all oppose Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act:

RIOS: “They don’t know the whole story, Jason.”

RAHLAN: “They’re pretty smart people Sandy, I think they do. They know the whole story.”

RIOS: “No I don’t think they’re pretty smart at all.”

RAHLAN: “You don’t think the CEO of Apple is smart?”

RIOS: “You know if he were smart why is he doing business with countries where they are actually executing homosexuals?”

RAHLAN: “What about the NCAA?”

RIOS: “The NCAA watches, they watch the media! They watch the ridiculous exaggeration.”

There’s a great deal more, but bottom line, MSNBC should never have hosted a spokesperson for an anti-gay hate group, should at least have been better prepared, and should have properly identified Rios as a member of a hate group.

This was, in short, journalistic malpractice and MSNBC needs to apologize and correct the record.

Some reactions via Twitter:

 

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News

Why Dick Cheney Will Be Voting for Kamala Harris, According to Liz Cheney

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September 6, 2024

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Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney will cast his ballot in November for the current Democratic Vice President, Kamala Harris, according to his daughter, Republican former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.

Dick Cheney, now 83, is also a former U.S. Secretary of Defense, U.S. Congressman, White House Chief of Staff, and the first-ever White House Deputy Chief of Staff. (To put that in perspective, that was exactly 50 years ago. There are currently now three Deputy Chiefs of Staff.) He is from a generation ago and possibly not well-known to many Americans. A hard-core Republican, during his time in the public eye and behind the scenes in the White House as President George W. Bush’s Vice President, Cheney was reviled by many Democrats, especially for his role in what the Bush administration would come to call “the Global War on Terrorism.”

But Friday, at the annual Texas Tribune Festival, The Atlantic’s Mark Lebovitz interviewed the former Vice President’s daughter (full video), who also served as Vice Chair for the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“Dick Cheney, your father, a beloved figure among Democrats for many, many years,” Lebovitz said, joking (video below). “Do you, if you know, who he will be supporting or who will be voting for? Do you care to share with us who he will be voting for?”

READ MORE: ‘Traitor’ Trump Trashed for Response to DOJ Kremlin Cash and Russia Disinfo Indictments

“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Liz Cheney replied, to howls and cheers from the audience. She had endorsed Harris for President earlier this week, and became one of hundreds of prominent Republicans who publicly have said they will not just not vote for  Donald Trump, but will vote for Harris for President.

“If you think about the moment we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes — and he said publicly — there has never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is,” Cheney explained, as The Texas Tribune reported.

Two years ago Liz Cheney posted video of her father endorsing her bid for re-election, and denouncing Donald Trump.

She continued her remarks on Friday, explaining that, “obviously Vice President Harris and I have had and have policy disagreements on some issues, but I have been really impressed watching, for example, the Democratic Convention, listening to her speech at that convention, learning about her life story, learning about, you know, the story of her success, and the the extent to which it’s an American story and and I think we all have to walk ourselves back from this abyss that we’ve looked over in our politics and and work together to build a better future for this country.”

The former Congresswoman lost her seat over her opposition to Donald Trump and her participation and leadership on the January 6 Committee. On Friday she went even further in announcing her endorsements.

“One of the most important things we need to do as a country as we begin to rebuild our politics is we need to elect serious people,” Cheney continued. “Here in Texas, you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for U.S. Senate.”

READ MORE: ‘Incoherent Gibberish’: Experts Trash Trump’s ‘Incomprehensible’ Answer to Policy Question

“It’s not Ted Cruz,” she said, announcing her support for Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by the GOP Senator.

“Imagine telling yourself in the early oughts that Dick Cheney would one day endorse the Democratic candidate for president because the GOP’s 2024 nominee poses an existential threat to American democracy,” remarked Democratic strategist DJ Koessler. “The stakes in this election are truly historic.”

Political scientist David Darmofal commented, Kamala Harris’s “coalition now extends from AOC to Dick Cheney. She’s a uniter, not a divider.”

Watch Cheney’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Something’s in Play Here’ Says Ex-Trump NatSec Official on DOJ Russian Disinfo Indictment

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‘Traitor’ Trump Trashed for Response to DOJ Kremlin Cash and Russia Disinfo Indictments

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2 days ago

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September 6, 2024

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Donald Trump’s latest attack on American rule of law and the U.S. Dept. of Justice is facing condemnation. The GOP presidential nominee and convicted felon awaiting sentencing, while speaking at a courthouse press conference on his efforts to appeal a $5 million judgment in a New York sexual abuse and defamation civil case, called the DOJ’s bombshell indictments in the Kremlin cash and Russian disinformation case a “scam.”

“It’s always the same,” observed foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf. “Defend Putin. Defend Russia. Defend corruption. Accuse those who are enforcing the law of being engaged in a scam. Why does he sound this way? Because he is a traitor and a criminal.”

Trump told reporters Friday, “This is a long and complicated web and story, but it all goes back to the DOJ and Kamala and sleepy Joe and all the rest of them.”

“We have a whole rigged election system,” he declared, as he often does, promoting his “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen while appearing to be paving the ground for the same response should he lose in November.

READ MORE: ‘Incoherent Gibberish’: Experts Trash Trump’s ‘Incomprehensible’ Answer to Policy Question

“Nobody’s ever seen anything like what’s happening now. I understand yesterday, they’re bringing up Russia, Russia, Russia again, that they’ve done for years. Never found anything,” Trump falsely claimed. “But they should be looking at China, China, China, Iran, Iran, Iran, lots of other places.”

“I haven’t spoken to anybody from Russia in years. They know that, but it’s a scam,” he claimed. “But, it all goes back to the DOJ because we had a trial today. It’s an appeal of a ridiculous –.”

Trump was referring to this week’s indictments that reveal a U.S. media outlet that platformed several far-right pro-Trump influencers was funded with millions of dollars from Russia in a scheme to help Trump.

“The allegations,” NBC News reported on the indictments, “came as part of a wide-ranging move by the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury to target what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election.” In a separate report NBC News calls the influencers, “paid messengers for Russian propaganda.”

The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former White House speechwriter for Republican President George W. Bush, responded to Trump’s remarks, saying: “The only topic on which Trump never flip flops.”

READ MORE: ‘Something’s in Play Here’ Says Ex-Trump NatSec Official on DOJ Russian Disinfo Indictment

The liberal super PAC American Bridge responded to Trump’s comments by pointing to an Associated Press article and writing: “YESTERDAY Trump’s former senior campaign aide was charged for accepting $1 million to spew Kremlin talking points.”

Podcaster Fred Wellman remarked: “I’m a bit of a news hound and I didn’t see anyone saying that Trump had been talking to Russia yesterday. He is incapable of not blurting out confessions.”

Watch Trump’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Can’t Even Find a Complete Sentence’: Trump’s ‘Gobbldygook’ Childcare ‘Solution’ Slammed

 

 

 

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‘Incoherent Gibberish’: Experts Trash Trump’s ‘Incomprehensible’ Answer to Policy Question

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2 days ago

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September 6, 2024

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The fallout continues over Donald Trump’s remarks during what was billed as a “major economic speech” Thursday, now with business and economics experts blasting the ex-president’s “incoherent” answer when asked at The Economic Club of New York to explain what he would do to lower childcare costs for parents.

“Word Salad was served at the Economic Club of New York this afternoon. Despite the audience knowing it was a plate full of empty calories that may cause food poisoning… they ate it up,” MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle remarked on social media. An NBC News senior business analyst, Ruhle worked in the finance industry for 14 years.

“Calling Trump’s remarks at the NY Economics Club incoherent gibberish is not a biased attack. It is a completely rational observation. He did not speak in coherent or complete sentences. And when he did, proposals like (tarriffs – childcare) do not make sense,” Ruhle added on X overnight.

RELATED: ‘Can’t Even Find a Complete Sentence’: Trump’s ‘Gobbldygook’ Childcare ‘Solution’ Slammed

“The 11th Hour,” the MSNBC show Ruhle hosts, called Trump’s remarks “economically illiterate.”

Ruhle was far from the only expert to blast Trump’s comments.

Reshma Saujani is the founder of the nonprofits Moms First and Girls Who Code. her bio says she “has spent more than a decade building movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and most recently advocating for policies to support moms impacted by the pandemic.”

Saujani is also the person on stage who asked Trump the childcare question.

“Incomprehensible at best,” is how she later characterized his response, “at worst, outrageously offensive to the millions of families drowning in costs.”

READ MORE: ‘Something’s in Play Here’ Says Ex-Trump NatSec Official on DOJ Russian Disinfo Indictment

Professor of economics and public policy Justin Wolfers, who often has appeared on MSNBC and CNN, posted a transcript of Trump’s remarks but deleted what policy issue he was actually discussing.

“With the context of his entire answer, can you guess what that issue is?” he asked.

Wolfers adds: “This policy analysis yields two substantive claims that relate to the topic:
1. “childcare is childcare” (fact check: true)
2. childcare is inexpensive relatively to his proposed tariffs (fact check: clearly false for many families with kids)”

New York Times financial columnist and CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin on MSNBC Friday said Trump’s remarks “seemed incoherent,” while warning that “the Republicans and the Trump machine have become really good at trying to bully people into submission, to some degree. To believe something that they don’t even believe because they’re seeing with their lying eyes and they’re unwilling to recognize what’s in front of them.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Absolutely Bombing’: Trump Makes Pre-Inauguration Ukraine War Vow in Economic Club Speech

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