Americans of all races and political persuasions want those who rioted at the Capitol on Wednesday to be brought to justice, so it was disheartening, but not necessarily surprising when former Republican senator from Maine and Clinton Secretary of Defense William Cohen poured gasoline on the fire on Monday's Andrea Mitchell Reports by spreading the blame to "white people" and their "white rage."
Mitchell began by asking, "Secretary Cohen, first, what do you think about Governor Schwarzenegger's comments?" No one at MSNBC takes exception to comparing the Capitol riot to Germany's Kristallnacht, when 30,000 Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps.
Cohen claimed that, given his family history, Schwarzenegger knows what he is talking about. He then proceed to condemn the anti-Semitism seen at Wednesday's riot and Charlottesville. However, he then broadened his denunciations from the extremists who ought to have the book thrown at them, to white people generally. In an apparent shot at the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence, Cohen declared:
Adam Schiff, whom I admire talked about the big lie the president has been spreading the big lie about the fraudulent election that is taken place. There's been several big lies. The first big lie is that we have been told in this country that everyone is created equally, all men and women are created equal. That's not true. We have been told that equal justice under law, that's not true. There has never been equal justice under law in our country. Now we're seeing the white backlash or whitelash and it's called, there was an interesting book written by Carol Anderson who wrote a book called White Rage.
Cohen, continued, again not blaming a set of fringe radicals, but:
white people have come to the conclusion that the playing field that has been so uneven in the past is now being levelled. When the playing field is levelled, people have to be judged based upon their character and capabilities and not upon their skin color and that's part of the rage in which they are seeing people of all color, religions, races, now are able to compete. When they are able to compete, they prevail.
This was right up Mitchell's alley. Earlier in the show, Mitchell accused Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan of being "one of the leaders of the insurrection" despite Jordan tweeting the blunt statement "Stop the violence. Support Capitol Police."
This segment was sponsored by GoDaddy.
Here is a transcript of the January 11 show:
MSNBC
Andrea Mitchell Reports12:51 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: Joining me now is former Defense Secretary William Cohen, who is also a former House and Senate member. Secretary Cohen, first, what do you think about Governor Schwarzenegger's comments?
WILLIAM COHEN: I think we should look at him and his history and his father's history and take him at his word that he understands how the rise of fascism in his country, Nazism came into power. We did see, during that period, the rise anti-Semitism, the attempt to murder every single Jew in Europe, they succeed in murdering six million and we saw just in the last week, there were those wearing shirts that said six million’s not enough and we saw some of those marchers in Charlottesville saying “blood and soil, Jews will not replace us.” So, that was the rise in anti-Semitism in Europe and we are seeing a continuation of racism in this country and Adam Schiff, whom I admire talked about the big lie the president has been spreading the big lie about the fraudulent election that is taken place. There's been several big lies. The first big lie is that we have been told in this country that everyone is created equally, all men and women are created equal. That's not true. We have been told that equal justice under law, that's not true. There has never been equal justice under law in our country. Now we're seeing the white backlash or white lash and it's called, there was an interesting book written by Carol Anderson who wrote a book called "White Rage." What is the basis of all of the rage? It's because white people have come to the conclusion that the playing field that has been so uneven in the past is now being levelled. When the playing field is levelled, people have to be judged based upon their character and capabilities and not upon their skin color and that's part of the rage in which they are seeing people of all color, religions, races, now are able to compete. When they are able to compete, they prevail. It's really about racism which goes back to the core of our country that continues, to this day that we saw 100 years ago with the Tulsa massacres in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Same thing. Black Wall Street burned down. Why? They were prospering. They were creating jobs. The white supremacists, so called, burned it all down because they couldn't stand competition.
