UPDATE: Reader Tom E. has brought to my attention that "Girl Talk" is the name of a DJ who specializes in mashups. I'd surmise that, like me, most Hayes viewers didn't get the cultural reference and took "girl talk" at face value.
Paging the MSNBC PC police! On his All In show this evening, Chris Hayes used some decidedly un-PC language to dismiss concerns that ISIS or other terrorist groups might be infiltrating across our porous southern border.
Huffed Hayes: "in the years since September 11, there have been occasional stories of this type. Sort of, a kind of girl talk mash-up of the fear about the border and the fear about terrorism being fused together." The fear of terrorists coming across the border is "girl talk?" Off to the re-education camp with Chris!
Hayes uttered his frankly unfeminist phrase during a discussion with Michael Schmidt of the New York Times, who had written an article about stories circulating about possible terrorist infiltration across the southern border, and the push-back from the Obama administration against such claims.
Aside from its political incorrectness, Hayes' blithe dismissal of the concerns makes no sense. It's unquestionable that our southern border is porous: witness the hundreds of thousands of people who have crossed it illegally in recent months. Why wouldn't ISIS or other terrorists be looking to exploit that vulnerability?
CHRIS HAYES: At the Senate hearing today, Senator John McCain asked one of the witnesses a pretty leading question about the domestic threat posed by ISIS.
JOHN MCCAIN: Are you concerned, Secretary Hagel, about our southern border? We received testimony from our Homeland Security people that our border is porous and the people who are now free to travel to the United States and also other radical elements might cross our southern border to attack the United States?"
HAYES: ...The claim persists, despite having been debunked repeatedly, most recently in a pretty thorough new piece in the New York Times that was unusually pointed in its language, quote, "conservative groups and leading Republicans have issued stark warnings like those that ISIS and other extremists from Syria are planning to enter the country illegally from Mexico. The Homeland Security Department, the FBI and lawmakers who represent areas close to the border say there is no truth to the warnings." . . . In the years since Septem ber 11, there have been occasional stories of this type. Sort of, a kind of girl-talk mash up of the fear about the border and the fear about terrorism being fused together into this kind of story. It's not a new thing. Obviously there's a certain urgency that it's taking now but this is something that I've seen before.
