Perhaps the only thing more off putting than deifying politicians is deifying bureaucrats, but that is exactly where MSNBC Live went on Thursday in recapping Wednesday's impeachment proceedings and Fox News' reaction to it. In defending the honor of the civil service, former spokeswoman for the Treasury Department and Samantha Power at the UN Hagar Chemali accused Fox of "blasphemous" attacks on George Kent and Bill Taylor.
Chemali began by stating that she was watching Fox, because, "I find it part of my job to know what every outlet is saying and all of the perspectives." She declared that while she did not expect Fox to be "praising the witnesses," but it was much worse, "I didn’t expect them to take the rhetoric from the hearing yesterday and to make it even worse. Some of the things they said were really blasphemous."
Perhaps someone should tell Chemali what blasphemous actually means. According to the Oxford English Dictionary’s Lexico, blasphemous is “sacrilegious against God or sacred things; profane. Not going after bureaucrats or politicians. It’s important to note that Ruhle had NO response to this accusation of blasphemy against a government official.
Chemali's attacks on Fox are selective. It may be hard for MSNBC to recognize viewpoint diversity, because it is severely lacking over there, but at Fox, Chris Wallace said on Wednesday that Taylor's testimony was "very damaging" for Trump. Previously Judge Andrew Napolitano has called Trump's conduct "clearly impeachable."
She proceeded to accuse Fox of doing Trump's anti-civil service bidding, "I have also been on the other side of attacks by those who have been watching Fox News, who really believe what the president is saying, that public and civil servants are bad people, that we're out against the president, that there is some kind of agenda. I can't stress enough to people, that won't believe me, when I say that all of us were raised with the notion of serving at the pleasure of serving the president." Chemali would go onto say that Kent and Taylor are protecting our "foreign policy apparatus and therefore our national security objectives."
Host Stephanie Ruhle concluded the segment by asking if this is part of a larger Trump plan to "blow up the system." To which, Chemali responded, "Yes, and the fact that you have Republicans saying that it is okay, condoning the behavior, it is outrageous, and they must know that it is wrong."
Here is a transcript for the November 14 show:
MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle
November 14, 2019
9:13 a.m. EasternHAGAR CHEMALI: Yeah, I find it part of my job to know what every outlet is saying and all of the perspectives. And when I flipped to Fox News last night I didn't expect them to be praising the witnesses, but I didn't expect it to be that bad, I didn’t expect them to take the rhetoric from the hearing yesterday and to make it even worse. Some of the things they said were really blasphemous and I have to say one of the things I noticed myself having been out of government now for three years is that this year in particular, I have also been on the other side of attacks by those who have been watching Fox News, who really believe what the president is saying, that public and civil servants are bad people, that we're out against the president, that there is some kind of agenda. I can't stress enough to people, that won't believe me, when I say that all of us were raised with the notion of serving at the pleasure of serving the president, it’s a common phrase in Washington, D.C. and when I saw Bill Taylor and Kent yesterday, it reminded me so much of these civil servants who are dedicated, with integrity, who are trained in sharing their story as honestly as possible and in a consistent manner and I think it’s shameful and it hurts us in the long run, because you're talking about undermining our entire foreign policy apparatus and therefore our national security objectives. I don't want to be dramatic, but I think there are consequences --
STEPHANIE RUHLE: But Steve Bannon closely tied to the president from the beginning has said his goal was to blow up the system. When you look at what’s going on right now, isn’t that what you’re saying, we blowing up the system?
CHEMALI: Yes, and the fact that you have Republicans saying that it is okay, condoning the behavior, it is outrageous, and they must know that it is wrong.
