MSNBC's contempt for conspiracy theories about rigged elections only goes one way, as Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace proved on Wednesday as she implored Democrats to do more to stand up to GOP efforts of "rigging the electorate." Adding to the cable news insanity, Wallace gushed that liberal activist Stacey Abrams and other Democrats are "doing the Lord's work."
MSDNC, indeed. Here's the pathetic quote: "[Lawyer] Mark Elias is one man doing the Lord's work, as is Stacey Abrams. But why are the Washington Democrats so complacent on an issue that could deprive them of majorities in the House and Senate and access to the White House for the simple reason Republicans are saying out loud what they are doing, rigging the electorate in battleground states. Why isn't this a four-alarm fire?"
For Wallace, doing the Lord's work apparently requires your main claim to fame to be having lost an election and then spending the next several years lying about why. Wallace also attacked Democrats from the left, claiming they aren't doing enough to stop the assault on democracy.
Wallace naturally omitted the DNC recently sued Arizona over that state's voting law, only to have the lawsuit blow up in their face as even the DOJ conceded the law didn't violate the Voting Rights Act.
Robinson agreed that "it is a four-alarm fire," but pushed back on the idea that Democrats are complicit, saying Democrats just have to find something that "Joe Manchin and maybe a couple of others are willing to go to the mat for."
After years of MSNBC decrying the politicization of the DOJ, Robinson also demanded that:
The other thing that can and must happen is that Mark Elias can't be the only one challenging these laws in court. Merrick Garland has to be there, too. I mean, the Justice Department still has a Civil Rights Division and we still have federal courts across the country and those civil rights lawyers at the Justice Department ought to be in those courts challenging these laws especially the ones that are particularly onerous and obviously anti-democratic and you know, they may win, they may lose but they ought to be in there fighting.
If the left learned anything from Bronovich, it should've been that stunt lawsuits don't work, but stunt lawsuits are apparently what Wallace and Robinson want.
This segment was sponsored by Liberty Mutual.
Here is a transcript or the July 7 show:
MSNBC
Deadline: White House
4:20
NICOLLE WALLACE: Eugene, I have been covering this issue since the first stories emerged about the Georgia law that was signed into law. Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game, they moved it to Colorado, little else has ensued. Again, 389 laws, you talk to Democrats privately, they sort mumble about Mark Elias. Mark Elias is one man doing the Lord's work, as is Stacey Abrams, but why are the Washington Democrats so complacent on an issue that could deprive them of majorities in the House and Senate and access to the White House for the simple reason Republicans are saying out loud what they are doing, rigging the electorate in battleground states. Why isn't this a four-alarm fire?
EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, I think it is a four-alarm fire, Nicolle. I know a lot of Democrats who are not complacent at all about this. But there's the fact of the 50/50 Senate. That's what we're living with and so, you know, the best result Democrats can anticipate getting right now is what Joe Manchin and maybe a couple of others are willing to go to the mat for. And that may, as Tim suggested, that may be something less than the sort of fulsome protection of voting rights that’s in the H.R. 1 bill that is now being considered by the Senate. Maybe it's something like the H.R. 4 bill that the Senate can take up. The John Lewis bill that at least reinforces or reauthorizes sections of the Voting Rights Act and in a somewhat different way that the Supreme Court can accept and the whole idea of preclearance, which is an important concept. The other thing that can and must happen is that Mark Elias can't be the only one challenging these laws in court. Merrick Garland has to be there, too. I mean, the Justice Department still has a Civil Rights division and we still have federal courts across the country and those civil rights lawyers at the Justice Department ought to be in those courts challenging these laws, especially the ones that are particularly onerous and obviously anti-democratic and you know, they may win, they may lose. But they ought to be in there fighting.
