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COMMENTARY

America Needs MSNBC to Be Better – Especially Now That It’s Election Season

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MSNBC Needs to Ban Far Right Wing Extremists, Give More Airtime to Democrats and Less to Republicans, and Up Its Game Overall – Before It’s Too Late

Despite conservatives’ claims that “the media,” and especially MSNBC, is stuffed with and run by “leftists” and liberals the truth is far different. MSNBC, which at one time proudly pretended to be a bastion of progressivism, has worked hard to shed that cloak – doubling down by inviting on its air daily Republicans, conservatives, and even far right wing extremists.

To be sure, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Ari Melber, Stephanie Ruhle, Ali Velshi, Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, (that’s just off the top of my head) and most of the network’s mainstays are excellent journalists. Hayes’ “All In with Chris Hayes,” has won not one but two Emmys, which is impressive.

But MSNBC needs to get better and fast, if Americans are not going to be fed the same tripe that helped land Donald Trump in the White House.

Because MSNBC, NBC News, and Telemundo will be hosting the first 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate in June.

MSNBC and NBC News are run by Andy Lack, a news veteran who should no longer lead the news division. He’s responsible for NBC’s hiring of former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. That was a $69 million mistake that half of Twitter, it seemed, warned Lack about even before it hsppened. (Her “Santa just is white,” and “Jesus is white” comments should have been strong clues. They made her blackface remarks look tame.)

Lack is also responsible for foisting on MSNBC’s viewers another former Fox News anchor, Greta Van Susteren, who was six months of complete disaster.

Conversely, Lack is also responsible for MSNBC parting ways with Ronan Farrow (who went on to The Atlantic where his reporting uncovered the Harvey Weinstein scandals, earning him and the magazine a Pulitzer Prize.) Also, under Lack, MSNBC parted ways with Joan Walsh and Melissa Harris Perry, both of whom were excellent.

Given the disaster NBC’s Matt Lauer created during his stint as anchor for one of the Clinton-Trump presidential debates, Democrats are hoping Lack and the NBC News networks have learned their lessons.

It’s under Lack’s leadership that conservative pundits have been increasingly prominent, and it’s under Lack’s leadership that “Meet the Press” is headed by Chuck Todd, and has on more Republicans than Democrats nearly if not every Sunday.

You can thank Andy Lack for employing on MSNBC far right wing pundits like Hugh Hewitt, and for inviting on its air conservative opinion peddlers and newsmakers in service to President Trump,  including Matt Schlapp, whose wife is a senior Trump White House official, Trump BFF Chris Ruddy, and Alan Dershowitz. There’s also neocon science denier Bret Stephens, accused sexual harasser Eric Bolling, and Erick Erickson, who has compared LGBT people to terrorists and ISIS.

Rev. Al Sharpton had Erickson on as a guest this weekend. Again. It’s not like Erickson’s views are a surprise to anyone, and yet, here he is.

You can also thank Lack for allowing Chuck Todd to interview Carrie Severino, the head of the far right wing lobbying group Judicial Crisis Network – pretending she’s just an ordinary everyday legal expert last September – while running pro-Brett Kavanaugh ads for the Judicial Crisis Network.

Bottom line: We’re in election season now. Democrats, and the country, need MSNBC and NBC News to ban far right wing extremists, clean house of the conservatives who are only there to support the likely-compromised president, and up its game. Before it’s too late.

 

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COMMENTARY

Trump Mocked for Melting Down Over Gen. Colin Powell Endorsing Biden: ‘Cadet Bone Spurs Says What?’

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1 year ago

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June 7, 2020

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As might be expected, Donald Trump did not care for the comments made by former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell on CNN Sunday morning — including his endorsement of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States, so the president lashed out on Twitter.

With Powell calling out the president for his treatment of Gold Star families and accusing the president of being a “liar,” Trump tweeted back, ”Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars, just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden. Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ They didn’t, but off we went to WAR!”

That received quite a bit of pushback from commenters with one bluntly stating, “You couldn’t shine Powell’s shoes.”

You can see some other responses below:

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COMMENTARY

Trump Blames Obama for Iran Attack Then Takes Credit for Obama’s Accomplishments in Off-the-Rails Address to the Nation

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2 years ago

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January 8, 2020

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After three years there were likely few Americans hoping for some form of comfort from President Donald Trump’s address to the nation Wednesday in the wake of Tuesday night’s attack by Iran on air bases in Iraq that host thousands of U.S. Military troops. And President Trump, true to form, did not offer any.

The President descended as if from heaven (photo above) onto a stage filled with his military generals and advisors,

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. A clear attempt to show strength which the administration apparently felt the Commander-in-Chief could not summon if he appeared on camera alone. A sad statement.

“As long as I’m president of the United States Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump, out of breath, declared as he walked up to the podium, flanked by his men in uniform. He then said: “Good morning.”

President Trump was expected to give Americans hope and comfort, and a clear indication that they are safe from attack.

Instead, he tried to show strength through military might – with no suggestion diplomacy might be a better route.

And he lied.

A lot.

“The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration,” Trump claimed, blaming President Barack Obama in a speech watched around the world.

“Iran’s hostilities substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013,” Trump claimed. (It was actually 2015.)

He added, “they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash.  Instead of saying ‘thank you’ to the United States, they chanted ‘death to America.’  In fact, they chanted ‘death to America’ the day the agreement was signed.”

Those billions belonged to Iran, and reportedly were less than the numbers Trump quoted. They were Iranian funds frozen which had been paid to the U.S. for arms never delivered. It is a frequent trump lie he tells at rallies over and over.

“Then, Iran went on a terror spree, funded by the money from the deal, and created hell in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq,” Trump claimed  in his address to the nation – and to the world. “The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration.  The regime also greatly tightened the reins on their own country, even recently killing 1,500 people at the many protests that are taking place all throughout Iran.”

“The very defective JCPOA [the “Iran deal”] expires shortly anyway,” Trump said. That’s just false – another lie Trump often tells. Various parts expire between 2025 and 2030.

He claimed the JCPOA “gives Iran a clear and quick path to nuclear breakout,” which again is false.

After falsely blaming Obama for Iran’s attack he went on to take credit for Obama paving to road to energy independence.

“Over the last three years, under my leadership, our economy is stronger than ever before and America has achieved energy independence.  These historic accomplishments changed our strategic priorities.  These are accomplishments that nobody thought were possible.”

Again, false.

Here’s CNN’s Keith Boykin with graphs showing just how false Trump’s energy independence remarks were:

 

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COMMENTARY

Legal Expert Makes the Case for Trump to Resign — but Why Have So Few Others Demanded He Step Down?

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2 years ago

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December 28, 2019

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In a new op-ed for CNN, constitutional law professor F. Michael Higginbotham argued Friday that President Donald Trump should resign from office.

Higginbotham argued in the op-ed that President Richard Nixon’s resignation in the face of his own impeachment could be seen to represent, despite his grave abuses, “an act of patriotism.”

Nixon “protected not only his own historical legacy but also the country he had taken an oath to serve,” Higginbotham wrote. “Donald Trump should follow suit.”

He continued:

Trump should resign so the country can begin the process of healing. The divisions in the country today are even more corrosive than they were in 1974. That’s why it’s even more important that Trump emulate the best of Richard Nixon, who, in a rare moment of grace, understood he could only weaken the nation he led by focusing solely on himself, and chose the better path.

In President Trump’s acceptance speech of the Republican nomination at the Republican National Convention in 2016, he told the nation, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” While many mocked the hubris behind that claim, at this moment of national danger it is undoubtedly true: Trump alone can spare the nation the painful ordeal of an impeachment trial in the Senate.

While Trump is written about extensively every single day, such calls are relatively few. For all the tumult, investigation, and fierce partisanship Trump’s presidency has produced, it’s produced surprisingly sparse demands for his resignation. Even as Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives, and top newspapershave called for the president’s removal, the other option — the only way a president has actually been ousted from office via the impeachment process — remains woefully under-discussed. And though Democrats have occasionally called for the resignation of administration officials such as Attorney General Bill Barr and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, they seem hesitant to take the same step for the president himself. Instead, they often call on him to stop creating division and “lead” the country.

But “leading the country” is exactly what Trump has repeatedly proven himself incapable of doing.

What’s odd about the relative dearth of calls for is that Trump’s conduct clearly merits it. I’ve argued that calling for Trump’s resignation was the Democrats’ best move since they took the House of Representatives. And if, as many do, you think it’s appropriate for Trump to be impeached or removed, you should probably also think that it would be best if he just stepped down without all the conflict. In fact, it would be reasonable to argue that Trump should resign, but that an ultimately doomed impeachment process is too disruptive for the country. So in theory, there should be more support for Trump’s resignation than there is for his removal.

So why aren’t we deluged with calls for Trump’s resignation? CNN host Chris Cuomo’s response to the Higginbotham piece probably sums up the explanation:

Everyone assumes — almost certainly correctly — that Trump will never agree to resign the presidency. He hates admitting failure, he loves the adulation the office provides, and he fears the potential legal consequences of no longer being protected from prosecution. Nixon was a monster with a devoted base of support, but he realized eventually that it was time to throw in the towel. It’s nearly impossible to imagine a plausible scenario in which Trump does the same — and not just because the Republican Party seems even more devoted to the current president than it was to Nixon. He won’t even admit that his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was far from “perfect,” even though this admission could have helped him.

But the fact that Trump would almost never agree to resign doesn’t mean we should ignore the obvious fact that he should. Ignoring this option lets Trump off the hook for his own responsibilities, and it lowers the bar for the presidential standard of behavior.

Many Republicans have spoken out against impeachment by citing the fact that it will be divisive for the country and create more animosity or tension. By calling for resignation as a potential alternative to impeachment, Trump’s critics could point out that any resulting division from impeachment proceedings is at least as much the fault of the president. Democrats could argue that Trump’s behavior forced them to pursue impeachment, but if he were gracious and cared about the country, he could bring it to a peaceful end.

This reframes the discourse around Trump’s impeachment in a useful way, especially when pressed against Republicans who can’t bring themselves to defend the president’s conduct on the merits. And it exposes and dispenses with the implicit idea that Democrats are the only actors responsible for preserving constitutional government; that obligation falls just as heavily on the shoulders of Trump and the Republicans.

 

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