MSNBC’s Roberts Attacks GOP Strategist for Comparing Trump to 'Great' Joe Biden
According to Thomas Roberts, Vice President Biden is a political god who deserves no criticism. That’s the message the host sent to former Rick Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley on MSNBC Live Tuesday. The two men were discussing the political implications for Mitt Romney attending a fundraiser with Donald Trump when Gidley compared the bombastic Trump to gaffe-prone Vice President Biden.
"One of your anchors said how can Mitt Romney stand next to a guy who can embarrass him at any moment. Barack Obama can be embarrassed at any moment by a guy he made Vice President," Gidley argued to Roberts. [Video follows page break; MP3 audio here.]
Apparently, referencing Joe Biden in the same sentence as Donald Trump is unacceptable to Thomas Roberts who went off on Gidley. A clearly angered Roberts retorted, “Are you really going to compare Joe Biden, one of this country's most dignified and greatest political leaders that can cross the bridge, getting to both sides of the aisle and compare him to a Donald Trump? Do you really want to say that?!”
Roberts, who has consistently worn his liberal ideology on his shirtsleeve was unapologetic in his defense of Biden, insisting Gidley was defending Trump's birther nonsense when in reality he was just pointing out liberals' double standard.
Gidley held his own throughout the interview, refusing to be cowed by Roberts's bullying. [For more, see Mediaite.]
Below is the relevant transcript courtesy of MRC intern Matt Vespa.
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
May 29, 2012
11:24 a.m. EDT
THOMAS ROBERTS: Speaking of the Rominee tonight Mitt Romney is expected to cross the magic number of 1,144 number of delegates that he needs to clinch the nomination once Texas Republicans cast their primary vote ballots. That’s all happening today. Amanda Terkel, Morris Reed is a democratic strategist And Hogan Gidley national communications director for Rick Santorum's presidential campaign. Its great to see all of you this morning and I just want to get this out of the gate The DNC has released this statement in advance of today’s event saying once again Mitt Romney is failing the moral leadership test instead of rejecting Donald Trump's birther conspiracy theories and divisive attacks. He’s endorsing them by campaigning and fund-raising with him. Hogan I want to start with you. Mitt Romney says he doesn't agree with everybody who supports him, but if the president appeared with Bill Maher, who has said some really hateful things about Romney’s religion, wouldn't Republicans be just as outraged?
HOGAN GIDLEY: I'm sure they would be. But, I mean, this whole issue is a little bit ridiculous. I mean, speaking from doing these presidential campaigns. I mean, obviously he can't be held responsible for things Donald Trump says. But, earlier on the shows on MSNBC, one of your anchors actually said how can Mitt Romney stand next to a guy who could embarrass him at any moment? And I'm thinking to myself, well, Barack Obama could be embarrassed at any moment by a guy he made vice president. So, I mean, these things happen. You can't be held accountable for everything people who support you say and people who support you do. And uh- this is just one of those deal where there are a lot of people who support President Obama who think George Bush was a conspirator on 9/11. It's just silly.
ROBERTS: Hogan, are you really going to throw Joe Biden under the bus and compare him to- Are you really going to compare Joe Biden, one of this country's most dignified and greatest political leaders that can cross the bridge, getting to both sides of the aisle and compare him to a Donald Trump? Do you really want to say that?
GIDLEY: I'm not comparing him to Donald Trump.
ROBERTS: You’re going to compare him to the “gaffetasticness” of Donald Trump?
GIDLEY: No, someone on your network said they couldn't believe that Mitt Romney would put Trump next to him because he would embarrass-
ROBERTS: Yeah and you just that said you just said that the Vice President is just as prone to these gaffes.
GIDLEY: He has embarrassed the president on many occasions. He has embarrassed the president on many occasions. This is all very, very silly stuff. Look, let's get focused on the issues here. You can't be held accountable for what people who support you say or what they do.
ROBERTS: It’s one thing to not be held accountable, but it is another thing to thrust yourself on to the national stage and appear with them appear with them in what will be millions of dollars cash grab in Vegas. I mean shouldn't you speak up or try to put a..put uh an end to all of this, as you call nonsense, and get back to the real issues. I mean Donald Trump was on CNBC this morning talking about just this.
GIDLEY: But he has! He has disavowed the birther movement. There’s no question about that and Donald Trump is not known really for the birther movement. He is known for the economy. He is known for trying to turn around profits and make money in this country and live the American dream and help others do the same. And he thinks Mitt Romney is the one who can do that by turning this economy around. So he supports Mitt Romney.
ROBERTS: I'm a little bit surprised that you can come on here and defend Donald Trump and say he is not keeping the birther conspiracy alive when he was just on CNBC this morning keeping it alive.
GIDLEY: That’s not what I said I said he’s not known for that. if anything he’s known for the economy and trying to make money in this country and that’s why he’s supporting Mitt Romney because he believe he can turn the economy around. Its just one issue in a lot of things that I’m sure Mitt Romney and Donald Trump don’t agree on and I’m sure- um the president doesn’t agree with a lot of his donors ton the fact that George Bush was a co-conspirator on 9/11 or silly things like that this is not- this is what we do going into the summer... we focus on ancillary issues that don’t really matter because we have to draw headlines when viewership’s down, readership’s down, and newspapers- we have to bring up these crazy topics instead of focusing on the economy and focusing on what we’re going to do in this next election.
ROBERTS: But it’s not the media bringing up this..this topic though. It’s not the media bringing up this topic. It’s Donald Trump. Why are you blaming the media about this when it’s Donald Trump who throws this crap out there?
GIDLEY: I’m not blaming- I’m blaming the media for bringing for uh..for covering what he says about the birther movement. Uh, Mitt Romney has disavowed it, I’ve disavowed it, Rick Santorum has disavowed it That stuff is nonsense. Let’s focus on the last four years of this president, Barack Obama, and what we’re going to do moving forward.
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Comments
"Stand up Chuck".
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:51pm.
"Stand up Chuck".
John Roberts is the gay Ted Baxter
Submitted by frank14 on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 6:17pm.
"the great Joe Biden"...you can't write comedy like that!
"Stand up Chuck".
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:51pm.
"Stand up Chuck".
better left alone
Submitted by MidAmerica on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:58pm.
I don't think these oh so smart strategists realize that their focus on Trump and the Birther issue only increases the low information voters suspicion that obama might not have been born in this country.
crazy uncle joe
Submitted by MidAmerica on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 2:03pm.
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Then, there's this one,
Submitted by UpNorth on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 2:13pm.
“I didn’t use, no no no. … Let’s get it straight, guy. Don’t screw around with me,” said Biden, who went on confirm his original remarks, saying, “Murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise,” if the jobs bill isn’t passed.
Okay, we'll continue to point out Joe's gaffes, but, eventually, bandwidth limitations will force us to be more selective.
The latest
Submitted by KornKing on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 3:00pm.
Biden, when told that 38 million Poles took offense at the recent gaffe by King Urkel responded "that's a lotta dances"
Joe Biden is a plagiarist and a fool.
Submitted by pcnav on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 2:28pm.
This Tom Roberts is a nonsenical fool if he thinks he can convince clear minded people that Joe Biden is any else but an embarrasment. He has been consistantly wrong on foreign policy ("...let's split Iraq into seperate countries...") and had to quit his first presidential run when it was found he plagiarized a British MP's speech (Neil Kinnock).
No one thinks Biden is a "statesman". He has always been a fool, he just needs the hat with the bells.
Yes, Joe plagiarized
Submitted by nolefan2 on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 9:29am.
a speech and now he is the number two man to someone who seemingly has plagiarized his whole life.
The one point missed..
Submitted by Scrap Iron in Texas on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 3:09pm.
The one point missed is that while Trump may "stand next to" Romney, I feel confident that Trump will play no role in a Romney adminstration.
Biden IS part of the BHO admin.
Trump will (hopefully) remain a private citizen.
Hey Joe!
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 3:09pm.
"You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent"
Without Trump, you wouldn't get paid!
Submitted by JeffC... on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 3:20pm.
How many people watch Trump's show on NBC? How many watch your show on MSNBC? Could your show survive if you had to survive with only your advertiser dollars? I think not.
Let's face it, dingus. Without Trump's millions of viewers, and advertisers' money going into the NBC Universal/Comcast joint bank account, you'd be making your rants in front of your old stuffed animals in your mother's basement.
By the way--how close is your office to Al Sharpton's? I'm sure you've heard his claims, among others, of Republicans imposing genocide on black America. Think about that the next time you're in the MSNBC cafeteria and the Rev asks to to pass the ketchup.
I can't believe Tommy Bobby called Trump 'gaffetastic'
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 3:18pm.
LOL. Biden is a synonym for gaffetastic. Any poll by anybody would confirm this.
But to Tommy Bobby's credit, he actually went for an astounding 1.5 minutes without bringing up gays.
Right beside the picture of Biden
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 4:17pm.
To the left is the statement Foot-in-mouth disease.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Paging our resident Gator!
Submitted by drsamherman on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 5:43pm.
If you are keeping a parallel gaffe list on Joe Biden, you must be up in quadruple digits by now!
I heard a radio caller say
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 8:07pm.
"I was told in 2008 that if I voted for McCain for President, it would guarantee an idiot as Vice President. I did, and they were right!"
Say whatever you want about
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 11:12pm.
Say whatever you want about Joe Plugs Bite-Me, because it's all true. But even if he wasn't even in the picture, I think that Boy BlahBlah has made enough stupid, ignorant, wrong, and ludicrous comments on his own to earn his standing as a walking, talking idiot..................it's just that the StateRun Media refuses to acknowledge any of them.
If the state-run
Submitted by nolefan2 on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 9:31am.
media really think Joe Biden is a "great" man, then we are in far more serious trouble in this country than I thought.