In a segment that shockingly did not come out of The Babylon Bee, MSNBC, the network that used the phrase "Moscow Mitch" and other dignified political commentary that asserts that behind every Republican is a Russian stooge, decided it would be worth their while to give a wide-ranging interview to an actual Russian stooge, NSA leaker Edward Snowden, on Monday night's The 11th Hour with Brian Williams.
Of all the people in the country to talk about national security and criticize President Trump, Snowden, who ran away to Vladimir Putin's Russia where he still lives, might be the least credible, but that didn't stop Williams from asking, "We have several important jobs vacant in this country including director of national security, national security adviser. Is that a threat to our security?" Snowden gave an evasive non-answer, instead rambling on about how the reason we are divided as a nation is because we can't even agree on what the facts are and that "Facts have to matter more than feelings."
Williams tried again to get the man who claims that the U.S. is violating civil liberties while living in Putin's Russia to condemn Trump, "What do you make of Donald Trump?" This time Snowden did go after Trump, "Donald Trump strikes me like nothing so much as a man who has never really known a love that he hasn't had to pay for and so everything that he does is informed by a kind of transactionalism, I think, and what he's actually looking for is simply for people to like him. Unfortunately, that produces a lot of negative effects." Snowden didn't clarify what me meant by "negative effects."
Also, it should go without saying that liar Williams has no credibility when it comes to being taken seriously.
After that Williams reported that the White House declined to comment on Snowden's assertion and then went to commercial teasing the next part of the interview that would be about smart phones. There are two reasons why the left and the media's allegations that Republicans are doing Putin's work sound empty. The first is that it is simply not true and there is no evidence in terms of actual policy to support that allegation. The second is that when policies are initiated to prove the first, Democrats and their friends in the media go right back to their old ways of saying that Republicans are too hawkish, making the "Trump needs to get tough on Putin" outcries look insincere.
Here is a transcript for the September 16 show:
MSNBC
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
11:36 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We have several important jobs vacant in this country including director of national security, national security adviser. Is that a threat to our security?
EDWARD SNOWDEN: I think it really says something about where we are. What this point in our history looks like. When we find that there are not enough people in the country that are willing to serve in the White House and qualified to serve in the White House. Who all sides of the government feel comfortable working with and who they can back. We are in a time that is increasingly fractured and I think that's a product of the fact that, look, if you look around at the world right now, when you look at news, when you look at news coverage, when you look at every controversy that we see, something has changed, and that is that it has become increasingly popular for your feelings to matter more than the facts, and I think that's toxic to a democracy because if there's one thing that we have to have to be able to have this discussion, to be able to learn to live with people that we disagree with, we can't have a conversation about what we should do. We can't have a conversation about where we are going if we can't agree on where we are, if we can't agree on what is happening. Facts have to matter more than feelings.
WILLIAMS: What do you make of Donald Trump?
SNOWDEN: There are so many things that are said about the president right now and so much thinking, and honestly, I try not to think about it. There's so much chaos and there are so many aggressive and offensive things said. I think even his supporters would grant that. But I think he's actually quite simple to understand. Donald Trump strikes me like nothing so much as a man who has never really known a love that he hasn't had to pay for and so everything that he does is informed by a kind of transactionalism, I think, and what he's actually looking for is simply for people to like him. Unfortunately, that produces a lot of negative effects.
WILLIAMS: On that last assertion, we reached out tonight to the White House for comment and have not heard back.
