On Today: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Links Pro-Life Candidates to Abortion Doctor's Murder

  Left-wing MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, on Monday's Today show, disgustingly tried to link pro-life candidates running in this year's midterm elections to the murder of abortion Dr. George Tiller, as she told Today co-host Matt Lauer "the thing that has surprised me the most is how much" Tea Party candidates were "going back to hard line...positions on abortion" and, as she plugged her upcoming documentary on Tiller, warned viewers: " I think it's important that it's airing right now because there are, there are five Senate candidates running right now who have a position on abortion that has never really been seen in mainstream politics before."

Right before Lauer alerted viewers of the hour long documentary that is airing -- not coincidentally only eight days before Election Day -- at 9 pm Eastern time on MSNBC tonight, he asked Maddow if the Tiller murder was "isolated" or "part of a larger campaign" to which the MSNBC host ominously responded: "If the far edge of the pro-life movement is getting mainstreamed" by candidates adopting their position "what do we need to know about the far edge of the anti-abortion movement?"

                             (video after the jump)

Before Maddow attacked the pro-life movement she went after the specter of 527s giving too much money to support GOP candidates as she decried: "The owner of the Chicago Cubs has given $600,0000 to Sharron Angle. That Kind of thing was not happening before."

The following is Lauer's full segment with Maddow as it was aired on the October 25 Today show:

MATT LAUER: Let's bring in Rachel Maddow, the host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Hi Rachel, good morning to you.

RACHEL MADDOW: Hi Matt, good to see you.

LAUER: Want to talk about money now. Not, not what the candidates themselves are directly spending, but money that's going into these 527 organizations, where they don't have to disclose where the funding is coming from. How big an impact are they gonna have in this election cycle?

MADDOW: It is, it is new to this election cycle. We are used to worrying about and complaining about the influence of money in politics and how transparent everything is. This year, for the first time, if an individual wants to donate infinitely to a candidate, instead of that $2400 ceiling that they would otherwise have on a candidacy, that person can declare themselves a PAC and donate, literally, with no limit at all. So the owner of the Chicago Cubs has given $600,000 to Sharron Angle. That kind of thing was not happening before.

LAUER: You're, you're hearing Democrats, President Obama is out there crying foul here, saying, "show me the money." And Michael Steele, on Meet the Press on Sunday, said, "Wait a minute, "Are you alleging that there is a crime taking place here? That election laws are being broken? If so, basically, show me your evidence."

MADDOW: But you know I think Michael Steele made some news on Meet the Press. This hasn't gotten a lot of attention yet, but he endorsed the idea of full disclosure in terms of campaign donations. Now Democrats put that forward, it was called The Disclose Act, after the Supreme Court decision that made this all legal. Republicans opposed it, stopped that in, in the Congress. So now to have the chairman of the Republican Party saying he supports that Disclose Act that his party blocked, it seems like Republicans don't know exactly where they stand on the issue of disclosing.

LAUER: We, we've got a lot of, a lot of attention being paid to the Tea Party right now.

MADDOW: Yeah.

LAUER: It's clear that when this election is over, there are gonna be some Tea Party candidates who are gonna be sworn into the Senate. You could have Joe Miller, you could have Sharron Angle. How are they going to behave as senators? What are we expecting from them?

MADDOW: The thing that is surprising, I think, about the Tea Party candidates is, is one, that without a national leader in the Republican Party right now, post-McCain, post-Bush, without somebody who's the figure head of the party, the Tea Party has, in essence, become the figure head of the party. So every Republican, in essence, ends up having to talk to or talk about the Tea Party. But those candidates, the thing that has surprised me the most is how much they are into social issues. The sort of culture war issues of the early nineties. Going back to hard line issues, positions on abortion, hard line positions on gay rights. That sort of - hard line positions on the Second Amendment and some, in Sharron Angle's case some very threatening language, in terms of the Second Amendment. That's been what's surprising, I think.

LAUER: I want to give you a chance here, you got a new documentary on MSNBC tonight about the murder of a doctor who provided abortions. Tell me a little bit about it.

[On screen headline: "Extremist Danger, Documentary Looks At Murder Of Abortion Doctor"]

MADDOW: Dr. George Tiller was really vilified by the anti-abortion movement because he provided abortions late in pregnancies. He was in Wichita, Kansas. He was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist last year. And the documentary really looks at how the murder happened, what we know about why it happened. And I think it's important that it's airing right now because there are, there are five Senate candidates running right now who have a position on abortion that has never really been seen in mainstream politics before. They want it criminalized, including people who are, who become pregnant because of rape or incest.

LAUER: So what you're asking, is this an isolated murder or is this part of a larger campaign?

MADDOW: Well if the far edge of the pro-life movement is getting mainstreamed by candidates adopting, high level candidates adopting their position, what do we need to know about the far edge of the anti-abortion movement?

LAUER: Alright, we want to tell people "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller" airs tonight at 9 o'clock Eastern. That is on MSNBC. Rachel, thanks so much.

MADDOW: Matt, thank you.

—Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here