As President Biden’s keep piling up, MSNBC All In guest host Ali Velshi welcomed former Biden deputy assistant and Symone host Symone Sanders-Townsend to wonder what the big deal is. For Velshi, Biden’s document scandal is the “next Benghazi” while for Sanders-Townsend, Hunter Biden is “just his son.”
After playing a clip of Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, Velshi asked Sanders-Townsend her thoughts, “This is sounding more and more like the next Benghazi. The commitment to figuring out these documents, and Joe Biden, give me your analysis of this.”
It is still unknown what exactly was in the documents, how they ended up at the Penn Biden Center and his Delaware home, and why it took months for the public to be made aware of the documents’ discovery.
Those are real questions that have nothing to do with the Trump case that deserve answers, but Sanders-Townsend validated Velshi’s dismissal, “Look Ali, Congressman Comer, who you just saw, head of the Oversight Committee, right, I am pretty sure his constituents care about what's happening at the economy, want to know what Congress is going to do to help them put more money in their pockets and put food on their tables. This is not what Republicans were elected to do.
The Oversight Committee has never, even when Democrats were in control, concerned itself with economic matters and is not going to suddenly shut itself down just because Democrats are no longer in control.
Sanders-Townsend was, however, happy to agree with Velshi’s Benghazi analogy:
this is an attempt to muddy the waters, that is what Benghazi was. If you talk to the chairman of the Oversight Commitment at the time, after the fact he talked about the fact that the goal was to muddy up Secretary Clinton’s image, if you will. The goal was to hurt President Obama and one could argue that, Benghazi coupled with the ‘but her emails’ did just that and I think this could be similar to not just Benghazi, but this could be President Biden's ‘emails,’ even though there is no-- I really think people ought to be clear about the nuances and the little differences here, these not two things of the same.
Later in the segment, Velshi managed to contradict himself and unwittingly point out he was being hypocritical, “Senator Ron Johnson was asked about the Republicans' single-minded focus on Hunter Biden yesterday and there are a lot of Republicans who are very concerned about this. Look, I don't know what to make about this thing, because none of them are concerned about the president's daughter and son-in-law, who seem to be profiting quite nicely off of the last administration, but what do you think about this thing? The Hunter Biden issue issue's not gone away.
By definition, Republicans cannot be single-focused on Hunter if they are also focused on Biden’s classified documents. Velshi also outed himself as a hypocrite for all of a sudden not caring about the shady business dealings of the president’s son while he cares deeply about Jared and Ivanka despite Jared actually having some impressive policy successes.
Sanders-Townsend also wondered what all the fuss is about, “Hunter Biden is a private citizen, he's not on a government payroll, he does not work for his father, in any capacity, whether private or government. He’s just his son.”
If Jared Kushner was making money in adversarial countries and getting appointed to positions of great influence he was clearly unqualified for, MSNBC would be reacting very differently.
This segment was sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.
Here is a transcript for the January 16 show:
MSNBC All in with Chris Hayes
1/15/2023
8:36 PM ET
ALI VELSHI: This is sounding more and more like the next Benghazi. The commitment to figuring out these documents, and Joe Biden, give me your analysis of this.
SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Look Ali, Congressman Comer, who you just saw, head of the Oversight Committee, right, I am pretty sure his constituents care about what's happening at the economy, want to know what Congress is going to do to help them put more money in their pockets and put food on their tables. This is not what Republicans were elected to do.
I think what is happening here, though, is that these—this is an attempt to muddy the waters, that is what Benghazi was. If you talk to the chairman of the Oversight Commitment at the time, after the fact he talked about the fact that the goal was to muddy up Secretary Clinton’s image, if you will. The goal was to hurt President Obama and one could argue that, Benghazi coupled with the “but her emails” did just that and I think this could be similar to not just Benghazi, but this could be President Biden's “emails,” even though there is no-- I really think people ought to be clear about the nuances and the little differences here, these not two things of the same.
…
VELSHI: Senator Ron Johnson was asked about the Republicans' single-minded focus on Hunter Biden yesterday and there are a lot of Republicans who are very concerned about this. Look, I don't know what to make about this thing, because none of them are concerned about the president's daughter and son-in-law, who seem to be profiting quite nicely off of the last administration, but what do you think about this thing? The Hunter Biden issue issue's not gone away.
SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Look, I think that this-- this is not new, right? When President Biden was a candidate, running for the presidency, this is something that Republicans tried to rally around, think it’s important to remember that Hunter Biden is a private citizen, he's not on a government payroll, he does not work for his father, in any capacity, whether private or government. He’s just his son.
And at some point, I think that people just have to literally let the crazy go, Ali and I think that's what a lot of Americans out there are saying. But the question of Hunter Biden's business dealings, it was asked and answered in the campaign about two, three years ago, and there was no there, there then and I don’t think folks are going to find any there, there now.
I think it is notable that instead of criticizing the president on his policy, right, sans what is happening at the border and even then Republicans stopped short of providing some policy solution, there’s a lot of why haven't you gone to the border? Now the president has gone to the border, and I'm waiting for the next talking point. Sans that, there is not much substantive criticism for this president. It is not a lot—it is nothing about the policy, nothing about what this infrastructure bill has done. Matter-of-fact, there are Republicans in this Congress who were in the last Congress and did not vote for that -- for some of this legislation, where they're touting it in their districts. So, this is, again, designed to muddy the water which is why it is important for the White House, and allies the White House to play off this.
