MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Plays Race Card on Budget, Libya
Covering the budget debate on Capitol Hill and the conflict in Libya, Andrea Mitchell spun two serious policy issues as examples of race-baiting.
On the April 5 edition of “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” the MSNBC anchor lamented that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposed 2012 budget would ravage black and Hispanic communities.
“Representative Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget, released today, includes reforms, what they call reforms, and also big cuts in housing assistance, job training, and food stamps,” warned Mitchell. “All of which would have a very big impact on particularly poor and minority communities, some say.”
Mitchell was mum as Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) bandied ludicrous assertions about the 2012 Republican budget, which would slash spending by nearly $6 trillion over 10 years mostly by reforming unsustainable health care entitlement programs.
“It’s clearly a nervous breakdown on paper and it will do enormous damage, I think, to the vulnerable populations of this country,” predicted the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, who added that the House Budget Chairman's proposed cuts to non-defense discretionary spending would “devastate the poor,” particularly in America's racial minority groups.
Cleaver can grouse about Republican cuts all he wants, but the fact is that Ryan’s budget calls for only modest reductions in the welfare programs that the Missouri Democrat referenced.
Mitchell could have pointed out that the 2012 budget plan would only pare back such programs to 2008 levels, but instead the NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent turned her attention to the issue of Libya.
Wondering why the U.S. went to war in Libya instead of the Ivory Coast or other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Mitchell pressed: “Do you think it’s a matter of color?”
“You know, I hate, I’m probably one of the strongest persons who advocates trying to reduce the language that separates people on the basis of color,” stammered Cleaver, seemingly puzzled by Mitchell’s claim that racial motivations drive U.S. foreign policy.
Cleaver's stance against using language that "separates people on the basis of color" is curious considering the divisive language he used just moments earlier to smear the Republican budget as racially discriminatory.
A transcript of the segment can be found below:
MSNBC
Mitchell Reports
April 5, 2011
1:46 p.m. EDT
ANDREA MITCHELL: Representative Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget, released today, includes reforms, what they call reforms, and also big cuts in housing assistance, job training, and food stamps, all of which would have a very big impact on particularly poor and minority communities, some say. Representative Emanuel Cleaver chairs the Congressional Black Caucus and joins me now. What is your initial reaction to what you’ve been able to see so far of the Ryan budget?
Rep. EMANUEL CLEAVER (D-Mo.): Well we received a preview of it yesterday, as much as could be given without actually seeing the actual budget. It’s clearly a nervous breakdown on paper and it will do enormous damage, I think, to the vulnerable populations of this country. I’m not suggesting that Mr. Ryan wants to do damage but it is doing damage nonetheless. And when you consider the unemployment rate for African Americans is reaching a 25-year high, it’s 15.5 percent and rising, and that means that the people who are going to be impacted by layoffs, for example, particularly in the public sector, are going to be minorities. Minorities make up one-fourth of the federal workforce. They did that because they figured if they can work for the federal government there will be less opportunity for somebody to discriminate against them.
MITCHELL: One of the columns praising what Ryan has done comes from David Brooks of the New York Times today. His point is this: “The Ryan budget will put all future arguments in the proper context: the current welfare state is simply unsustainable and anybody who is serious, on the Left or Right, has to have a new vision of the social contract.” You may not agree with David Brooks but his basic argument is that we have reached the point of no return. We have to take a fresh look, bring new sight to what we’ve always assumed is the given. Address that for a moment, given the budget deficit and what you’re facing.
CLEAVER: To some degree I agree with Mr. Brooks but look, the budget is a moral statement, it is a declaration of the moral contract of the United States. And I do think we need to look at social welfare again but we can’t devastate the poor as we do it and I think we have to take some compassionately smaller steps than we’re taking now. The poor will always be with us, I read that in another non-government book. It means that we have some responsibility. The United States can’t invade, or go to war in Libya, to protect people who are being hurt and then say we’re no longer going to help people in the United States who are hurt. And it will disproportionately impact the vulnerable population, most particularly Hispanics and African Americans.
MITCHELL: Want to ask you something, you just raised the subject of Libya. What do you think the United States’ responsibility ought to be in Cote d’lvoire and the Ivory Coast where we have seen hundreds and hundreds or people, both sides apparently have military – the outgoing president is refusing to give up power and the president-elect, who is entitled to take over, but there have been atrocities, reported at least, on both sides – do we have any responsibility or should we leave that up to the United Nations?
CLEAVER: Well we have confused the world and the American public and it goes for both Republican and Democratic administrations. What separates us going into Libya that didn’t allow us to go into the Sudan, where tens of thousands, some record that hundreds of thousands, were killed? So it seems as if, that, you know, we have less interest in sub-Saharan Africa than we do in Northern Africa and the Middle East and there’s probably some reasons for that that I don’t understand. I hope it’s not what many Americans believe and that is that the oil rich countries are always going to get attention of and support from the United States.
MITCHELL: Do you think it’s a matter of color?
CLEAVER: You know, I hate, I’m probably one of the strongest persons who advocates trying to reduce the language that separates people on the basis of color. That’s why I talked about the fact that it may be oil. I don’t know. With President Obama, I don’t think he made a decision to invade or to use Tomahawk missiles in Libya but refuses to go into sub-Saharan Africa. After all, his family members are still living in sub-Saharan Africa. So I don’t think it’s that. But I think it is still confusing because we don’t know what separates it. Somebody needs to explain it to us. What is the national interest we have in Libya? And why don’t we have that same interest in the Ivory Coast, for example?
MITCHELL: Emanuel Cleaver, thank you very much Congressman.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
“Representative Paul
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:08pm.
“Representative Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget, released today, includes reforms, what they call reforms,
big cuts in housing assistance, job training, and food stamps, all of which would have a very big impact on particularly poor and minority communities, some say.
I wasn't far off this AM. I said the phrase of the day would be "Draconian cuts in social services."
And it goes downhill from there.
Poor and Minority communities
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:08pm.
So the poor are the white people in need. All minorities are eligible. Are all minorities in need of help? I do not think so!
ANDREA MITCHELL:
Submitted by Morganfrost on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:08pm.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Representative Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget, released today, includes reforms, what they call reforms, and also big cuts in housing assistance, job training, and food stamps, all of which would have a very big impact on particularly poor and minority communities, some say. Indeed, once again we are likely to be treated to the horrifying site of axe-wielding Republican thugs goose-stepping through minority communities, looking for innocent children to sacrifice to the bizarre Judeo-Christian deity they all seem to worship.
With me today for a completely objective look at all this is political commentator, Wiccan theologian, anarcho-syndicalist organizer, and syndicated New York Times Columnist Chakra Crystal. Welcome, Chakra.
CHAKRA CRYSTAL: Thank you, Andrea.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Let's get down to brass tacks. Is this latest move by Republicans a horrible miscalculation, or is it just a brutal assault on everything good and decent in the American tradition?
CHAKRA CRYSTAL: Ooh, that's a tough question, Andrea. Tough, but fair. I think it's a little of both.
You got it, Andrea . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:08pm.
. . . President Obama is a racist for not intervening in the Ivory Coast, where France has a history of intervening since the colony's independence.
Ditto President Clinton for
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 9:02pm.
Ditto President Clinton for getting involved in the Balkans and letting Rwanda get destroyed.
To some degree I agree with
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:17pm.
To some degree I agree with Mr. Brooks but look, the budget is a moral statement, it is a declaration of the moral contract of the United States. -Cleaver
Yeah. He agrees with Brooks about to some degree (probably that it is unsustainable) but not to the degree where he thinks anything should be done about it.
The budget is a "moral statement?"
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:06am.
More crap from Cleaver.
If the Federal budget is indeed a moral statement, and almost never balanced, then what does that say about our national morality, if anything?
Galv,
Submitted by Agnostic on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:09am.
It says more about our national education and information systems then it says about our morality.
WAIT A MINUTE!
Submitted by notinstl on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:23pm.
she said "....some say"......isn't that kinda like saying "with all due respect"? you get to say anything you want as long as it is attributed to" some say".....she is a genius.
and Ricky Bobby would be proud
"some say"
Submitted by JeffC... on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:51pm.
That makes two TV shows that precede an outrageous statement with that phrase. At least viewers realize Jeremy Clarkson is deliberately pulling their legs.
When Andrea Mitchell says it, "some" means "the other believers here at MSNBC".
"'Mitchell was mum"? LOL!
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:25pm.
Hey, and The Mummy is STILL wearing that same dress from a month ago. Good thing none of her interviews are in-studio, so to speak.
ps, Alex: Please feel free to consult my extensive archive of Mitchell-Mummy material - I got tons of it!
Assault on the Black Community
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:31pm.
Andrea Mitchell and her ilk would have said that the Civil War was an assault on the Southern slave plantation "black community".
I listened to Ryan throughout the day today. You can tell he is pained by the way our current systems keep inner city poor in a perpetual cycle of quasi poverty and government dependency. Mitchell's main concern is not with the economic opportunities available to this group. Her concern lies in their perpetual economic bondage and their continued political beholdenness to their masters, the Democrat Party.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Of course....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:36pm.
they'd claim, the North's invasion will unfairly affect only black families by forcing them out of their jobs while leaving the wealth in the hands of a few white land owners.
Only Prog/Libs/Dems...
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:34pm.
would dare say "Spending billions we don't have on government-run health care and social programs will save America and not spending money we don't have will ruin it."
Ok. I think I've got it now......a headache, that is.
A Matter of Color?????
Submitted by Bourbeau on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:34pm.
Why not ask the President, a man of color, if his choice to go into Libya vs. Ivory Coast, was due to color? Nothing like a nice race bating newsperson helping create a wedge where there's no need. Maybe it's a Democrat thing - Clinto had a problem helping in Darfur, and now Obama is not helping the Ivory Coast. Geeze, who would have thunk it.
Actually,
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:37pm.
...he's a man of two colors. It's the white half that's attacking the brown and black people of Africa.
Ah, yes. The race cards start flying
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:46pm.
I knew someone would pull them out pretty soon over this.
So now I am a raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist for not wanting to see this country tip over financially.
Oh, well.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
I have an idea. If we need
Submitted by mostlymoderate on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:53pm.
I have an idea. If we need money for the budget and don't want to make changes to entitlements, let's get rid of that all black college named "Howard University" that is paid for by all Federal taxpayers. That's right, we still have a college that was created after the civil war that is almost 100% black and in which you and me pay for completely.
BTW, Jeremiah Wright came out of Howard University. You and I paid for him to learn how to hate white people, essentially.
mm, we could also get rid of
Submitted by MikeB on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 2:53pm.
mm, we could also get rid of Langston University in Oklahoma. Same set up, same results.
And all this time the Left claims it's about oil..
Submitted by Gary Hall on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:50pm.
..and oil is black. What's the problem.
(;~/ gary
Poor and Minority Democrats
Submitted by Djinn1975 on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:55pm.
This is what your party thinks of you, and I quote:
Andrea Mitchell: "Representative Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget, released today, includes reforms, what they call reforms, and also big cuts in housing assistance, job training, and food stamps, all of which would have a very big impact on particularly poor and minority communities, some say."
Just to be clear, when she says 'some say,' that means Democrats, you are an arguing point, and according to Andrea Mitchell, impotent without welfare, unable to achieve.
MISSOURI CONGRESSMAN Emanuel Cleaver: "And when you consider the unemployment rate for African Americans is reaching a 25-year high, it’s 15.5 percent and rising, and that means that the people who are going to be impacted by layoffs, for example, particularly in the public sector, are going to be minorities."
So you can forget about being a part of our glorious workforce rebound. And finally...
Cleaver: "And it will disproportionately impact the vulnerable population, most particularly Hispanics and African Americans."
...you are vulnerable.
This is what happens when you vote for color instead of substance. If I lived in Missouri's 5th district, I'd be pissed. This is what your party, that incessantly screams racism, publicly thinks of you, you depend on welfare, your twice the average unemployment rate is no big deal, and you are vulnerable.
Big Cuts??
Submitted by grammajane on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:55pm.
Big cuts for housing when you see Gov. funded apartments with air-condioners taken out of windows, copper taken from heating/plumbing systems, carpet ripped out and this all done for drug money. How about food stamps being sold in front of grocery stores for drug money. Yes, this would be a real tragic, trying to implement some new rules as to how tax money is being wasted in this country. As long as people get away with this behavior, the more votes for the liberals.
I would move if I were you.
Submitted by mandrake on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:16pm.
Seriously! I would get out of there if you've seen all these things first hand..you have witnessed them first hand haven't you?
Get the Detroit Free Press up there, Mandrake?
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 8:02pm.
Now I know Canada has none of these problems and all, but still, you could show a little sympathy towards your fellow continentals, no?
ok, I've been slapdown.
Submitted by mandrake on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:13am.
But I repeat, you should get out of there..doesn't sound like a problem that any government could fix..in the way or not. I live in a very nice neighbourhood in Toronto. Come here. Now it's time for Unsane to chime in and say Canada is a 2nd rate commie country going nowhere..etc
I don't know
Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:26pm.
if Grammajane did, but I have witnessed it, mandrake. Seen it first hand, and took people to jail for doing it. Any further questions?
It does happen and I have
Submitted by ant on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:31am.
It does happen and I have seen it first hand, also used to work at a bar and saw welfare recipients spend all their money on booze and video gambling and then ask me if I could "hook them up" with some free food. Maybe Mitchell and Couric could float a little of their own money toward the "minority victims", but I doubt on ever seeing that happen.
Now the US involvement in Lybia is a Matter of Color?
Submitted by gruyere cheese on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:59pm.
Andrea Mitchell: Wondering why the U.S. went to war in Libya instead of the Ivory Coast or other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Mitchell pressed: “Do you think it’s a matter of color?”
What the @&@&#^ is this airhead implying? And why is it that these Liberals always talk about the impact any decision the GOP makes will have on Blacks and Hispanics, only? How about the rest? Do we not have whites, asian and other races in our country that are affected by decisions made by either party? Political parties have had their differences throughout the years in this country, but never have I witnessed how the Liberals have brought race to the fore-front of every problem we are facing in America. If, I were Obama, I would be offended because it is mostly the White Liberal Media and the likes of Sharpton & Jesse Jackson that remind us of his skin color.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all
Submitted by bkeyser on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 5:59pm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's all because Congressman Ryan is a blatant racist and his entire goal is to hurt "people of color". How do we know this? Because there simply are no poor white people. White people in this country all earn at a minimum of 250k/yr, each, and aren't in need of food stamps or other forms of assistance. So it only stands to reason that this budget is driven by racism.
Same, of course, for our forays into foreign affairs. Libya is a country made up entirely of WASPs whereas the Ivory Coast is entirely "people of color." Obama made the choice to assist the pasty-white peoples of Libya simply on the basis of color, choosing in this case to represent his mother's race and stand up for the man. Mitchell nailed it again.
She apparently didn't get in on the Pelosi conference call which stated that one of the talking points should be that 6 million seniors will go without meals as a result of this budget; either that or she chose to stick to the racial side of things for this segment and will try and scare seniors into hoarding cans of beans next time around.
Half the U.S. budget is used
Submitted by rbosque on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:10pm.
Half the U.S. budget is used to dole out benefits. Absolutely unconstitutional. Imagine the money we'd save if people got off the government tit?
We would be able to be
Submitted by mostlymoderate on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:19pm.
We would be able to be "great" again like we were before the Ted Kennedy's of the world decided to make us a welfare state. You ever notice that everything that is really anything in this country was completed more than 40 years ago? Moon landings, Brooklyn Bridges, Golden Gate Bridges, interstate highway systems, Hoover Dams, railroads, military greatness, Mt. Rushmore, public infrastructure, parks, recreation parks, etc. etc. etc...
We don't do ANY of that anymore because all our money is going to overly-sexual, procreating welfare queens that produce offspring that continue the cycle.
Remember when kids used to actually go to PUBLIC school and get excellent educations?
Ever notice how, whenever the
Submitted by MikeB on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 2:59pm.
Ever notice how, whenever the government enacts a new entitlement program for people who need help, that the helpless start crawling out of the woodwork? How were these "helpless" getting by before Uncle Sugar came along to help them? And, once the gummint starts to help, the helpless never seem to be able to fend for themselves.
If the United States were to
Submitted by mostlymoderate on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:14pm.
If the United States were to immediately cease all support to Africa (for example, AIDS vaccines, food, etc.) that entire continent would be crippled. Did we just leap into Haiti not too long ago? Mitchell is so dishonest it is disgusting.
→ Minorities?
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:40pm.
By "minorities" she doesn't mean people with private sector jobs.
#18 mandrake
Submitted by grammajane on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 6:42pm.
I work in the neighborhood at a non-profit center and yes, have seen the neighborhood gradually going to hel.
Same Old, Same Old
Submitted by Dave81 on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 7:09pm.
Ah, liberals assuming to know the intentions of others. I see the universe is still in balance.
Andrea Mitchell
Submitted by Bill Brasky on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 8:01pm.
Is she a reporter or a commentator? Clearly she is not intelligent enough to be making judgments about Paul Ryans budget plan.
Smarts
Submitted by jaywl on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 9:54pm.
Oh how wrong you are, Bill. She skillfully uses straw men as well as her hero Obama does, "what they call reforms", or my favorite always "some say". And did you not notice how she slipped in the Francophile attention grabbing reference to her Avant-Garde Continental lifestyle and education by using the French and English for one country, Ivory Coast? I assume that since she is so damn smart her reference to the countries of Cote d'Ivoire AND Ivory Coast had to be a misprint and certainly not a moment of ignorance or worse.
Love to place a wager
Submitted by Boudin on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 10:05pm.
As to weather she could find it on a map or not.
The idiot speaks, "So I don’t
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 9:25pm.
The idiot speaks,
"So I don’t think it’s that. But I think it is still confusing because we don’t know what separates it. Somebody needs to explain it to us". I think there are many,many things that need to be explained to you.
This is why I cant watch the news anymore
Submitted by Boudin on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 9:52pm.
Half a dozen thoughts like this per day,, is bound to cause brain damage!
"Some say",
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 10:07pm.
having said that, there are those who say, rumor has it. The heck with that. Who care what someone that has no name thinks or says?!
If you want to make a comment or discuss some point, you really need the stones to admit that this is how YOU feel or think instead of alluding to some mythical other person or persons.
Andrea Andrea Andrea.....
Submitted by Ashrak on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 10:41pm.
The "they" versus "some" comparison is as laughable as it gets.
Why, it is almost an outright admission that "we surround them".
Ryan's budget continues to grow government. Cut it, it does not! Do not be fooled.
Journalist are barely qualified to work for the DMV
Submitted by Bbear11 on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:37pm.
Since when are “journalists” qualified to contribute an opinion? Not one probably ever took an economic course in college- too hard. That’s why they majored in journalism. Too much math.
These people are barely qualified to be substitute teachers yet we give them a national televised venue? They’re so self righteous they wander over enemy lines and then the state dept. bails them out (our taxes) totally screwing our credibility as a nation. Again, that’s why they “majored” in journalism. Why not major in "Hollywood."
There’s something seriously wrong with the way we see & hear the news. Luckily some networks are losing serious money because people are choosing to get their news online without bias.
Guess a serious discussion around the P&L needs to be had at some of the liberal networks…or it has already begun..that’s why CBS fired Couric.
What's that old saying?
Submitted by Bbear11 on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:00am.
East coast northern liberals will always "preach" about equality and how the rest of us unedumcated folk need to be enlightened and at the same time these people would never buy property next to a minority family. Remember the Kennedys? All for alternative energy until someone tried to build a wind farm that spoiled their view. They vigorously opposed it.
without racism
Submitted by your mama on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 7:58am.
Really, without racism they would have no argument. Which proves they are clueless on every single issue.Nothing new.
And they're boring as well.
Some say?
Submitted by gwalt on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:12am.
“All of which would have a very big impact on particularly poor and minority communities, some say.”
Some say? Who says? It's like my in-laws who watch this c*ap and then start a conversation "they said.....".
Who is "they"? "They" are always against us just like "some".
"A lot of briefing for a 2 hr. special with Dan Rather. Saw the show & wonder why we bothered". Ronald Reagan
Andrea, you ignorant
Submitted by MikeB on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 2:49pm.
Andrea, you ignorant slut!
Don't you think that if the social parasites realized the gravy train were coming to an end, they might actually have an incentive to get off their lazy asses and get one of those jobs that the illegal aliens have that "Americans won't do"?
Heck, yeah! Do some real welfare reform with a simultaneous initiation of an "Operation Wetback II". That solves multiple problems at once. With the former parasites actually working for a living, that would greatly increase the tax base and, therefore, increase tax revenue. With "entitlement" spending greatly reduced (there will always be those who genuinely can't work, so such spending will never be eliminated), we can pay off the national debt with the monies saved. After a generation, the Dumba$$crats will never win another election, because the producing citizens will not want to go back to another round of massive tax increases, of government sanctioned broken homes and one parent families, of massive government corruption, of any more "most transparent administrations" or "most ethical Congresses evah!"
When welfare queens are forced to work, they may realize that there are no unicorns, that unicorns don't fly, and that unicorns don't fart rainbows and $h*t skittles, and there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
What pathetic useless slugs
Submitted by Semus on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 4:00pm.
What pathetic useless slugs these people are. How in hell can these frauds justify the trusted positions they're in to present information to our society. They're told what to think and say, and they comply like so many Bobbleheads. There's not an original thought among them.