Speaking to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, on Wednesday night Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson attacked the GOP for sending a letter to Iran expressing their opposition to a proposed nuclear deal between the United States and Iran.
Robinson eagerly touted the Iranian response to the GOP and argued that they “sound like a voice of reason in this whole thing by saying, you know, this whole thing is silly, we're not paying any attention to it and nobody else should.”
The segment began with Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell promoting Hillary Clinton for criticizing the GOP’s letter to Iran before he proclaimed that “everything about this letter is unusual so there’s room for them to sign too.”
The MSNBC host then turned to Eugene Robinson to further attack the GOP and the liberal Washington Post columnist shamelessly praised the Iranian leadership for acting like the "voice of reason" in this whole debate:
The whole thing is just nuts. It is just nuts. And, you know, the Iranians sound like a voice of reason in this whole thing by saying, you know, this whole thing is silly, we're not paying any attention to it and nobody else should.
Unsurprisingly, O’Donnell found nothing objectionable with Robinson’s comments and instead quickly moved on by wondering “does this mean when Hillary Clinton does that tweet, does that mean that Republican candidates then must get on the letter in order to impress people in Iowa or do any of them think, you know what, there's going to be a general election debate where I don't want to explain what my name was doing on that later?
MSNBC host Krystal Ball continued to pile on against the GOP and maintained that the GOP will do anything they can to sabotage President Obama:
These Republican senators, both through inviting Bibi Netanyahu to speak to the joint session of Congress and through this letter have made this a completely partisan issue and of course trying to undermine the president and administration there, too. Look, if you're a Republican running in a Republican primary, it's never going to be the wrong move to oppose the president as stridently as you possibly can.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
March 11, 2015
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Hillary Clinton issued this challenge to Republican presidential candidates today on Twitter. “GOP letter to Iranian clerics undermines American leadership. No one considering running for commander-in-chief should be signing on.” Already signed on to the letter are four potential presidential candidates: Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, and Ted Cruz. Begging to sign on, until today anyway, are Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Texas Governor Rick Perry. Eugene Robinson, you know, it’s very unusual for governors to sign to onto a Senate letter. But everything about this letter is unusual so there’s room for them to sign too.
EUGENE ROBINSON: The whole thing is just nuts. It is just nuts. And, you know, the Iranians sound like a voice of reason in this whole thing by saying, you know, this whole thing is silly, we're not paying any attention to it and nobody else should.
O’DONNELL: Now Krystal [Ball], does this mean when Hillary Clinton does that tweet, does that mean that Republican candidates then must get on the letter in order to impress people in Iowa or do any of them think, you know what, there's going to be a general election debate where I don't want to explain what my name was doing on that later?
KRYSTAL BALL: Well, so far we haven't found that candidate yet, have we? I mean they all seem to either they want to be on the letter or they've been supportive, seem to be supportive of what the letter is all about. I mean, that really is the heart of the problem here, right?
These Republican senators, both through inviting Bibi Netanyahu to speak to the joint session of Congress and through this letter have made this a completely partisan issue and of course trying to undermine the president and administration there, too. Look, if you're a Republican running in a Republican primary, it's never going to be the wrong move to oppose the president as stridently as you possibly can.
