ABC was not the only network to try to tie Tuesday’s establishment of an Emmett Till monument to Republicans. CNN and MSNBC also got in on the act with wild and evidence-free declarations about how President Biden is protecting Till’s legacy from Republicans and how such brutal murders still occur today.
CNN Inside Politics host Dana Bash kicked off her show by welcoming White House correspondent Arlette Saenz and asking her what could be expected from the upcoming ceremony. While going through the specifics of the monument, Saenz made sure to add, “The president has long talked about the need to ensure that the moments are not erased from history.”
Saenz never provided proof that people are trying to erase Till. Still, she added:
This all comes at an important time when you've really seen the White House and the president trying to become more vocal in this debate over how these painful moments in U.S. history are taught to students in schools. Of course, you have Vice President Kamala Harris travel down to Florida just last week to talk about the guidelines that have been in place regarding slavery, but in just a short while, the president will be trying to honor Emmett Till and his family trying to ensure that these moments are not erased from American history.
Page 136 of the much talked about Florida social studies standards and in the African American history portion that Saenz references, there is a reference to Till’s mother Mamie, who will also be enshrined as part of the new monument for her role in the Civil Rights Movement.
But facts aren’t CNN’s first priority and neither are they MSNBC’s. On Andrea Mitchell Reports, the namesake host led New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker with a series of declarative statements rather than questions, “this is also happening as some states are being accused of chipping away at the teaching of black history, the accurate teaching. Ron DeSantis has been accused by the Washington Post editorial board, just yesterday, of trying to quote ‘whitewash slavery.’”
Mitchell then one-upped herself, “And the second biggest song in the country right now is Try That In a Small Town sung by Jason Aldean whose music video was filmed outside a Tennessee courthouse where a black teenager was lynched 1927 and a race riot took place in 1946. And remember, it was all during Aldean’s Las Vegas performance that a gunman opened fire, killing 60 people in 2017.”
What the 2017 shooting has to do with Aldean other than the unfortunate coincidence he happened to being performing at the time it happened was never said. Finally, Mitchell asked a question, “So, how important is it to designate these monuments against this backdrop?”
Baker replied that “it’s an incredibly salient moment right now” and also mentioned Florida:
Ron DeSantis is under fire, obviously, for that lesson plan that the State Board of Education approved in which it suggested to some people who had been enslaved, got valuable stills from it, as if it was a jobs program, obviously that sparked quite a furor nationwide and, you know, he’s doubled down on that rather than pulling back or trying to, you know, change that.
A short time later, Mitchell returned to Baker with a similar question, “So, I was very touched by that and in the climate of what we are seeing now, in the distortion of black history in some state curricula, how important is it, Peter, to remember to remember the legacy of what happened in our country as recently as the 1950s and '60s and arguably in some cases, still happening today?"
Emmett Till was brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman. He was beaten, shot him in the head, had his eye gouged out, and was tied to a cotton gin with barbed wire so that he would drown in the Tallahatchie River. His killers were later acquitted by an all-white jury. If that really did happen today, we would know about it.
Inside Politics was sponsored by Colonial Penn and Andrea Mitchel Reports by HughesNet.
Here are transcripts for the July 25 shows:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
7/25/2023
12:01 PM ET
DANA BASH: Up first, her pain powered a movement. Today, Mamie Till and the son stolen from her, Emmett, are enshrined as national markers of America’s possibility both how this country is tape capable of evil and how Americans can bend the arc of history back towards justice. We start our coverage at the White House with CNN’s Arlette Saenz. Arlette, what do we expect this hour?
ARLETTE SAENZ: Well Dana, any moment now, President Biden is expected to sign a proclamation establishing a new national monument that will honor Emmett Till and his mother, an effort from the president to try to shine a spotlight on some of the most painful moments in American history.
The president has long talked about the need to ensure that the moments are not erased from history. And it comes as just in 1955, Emmett Till was 14 years old when he was brutally murdered after being accused of whistling at a white woman. The president will be establishing three locations for this monument, including two in Mississippi and one in Chicago, Illinois.
That includes the Chicago church where Emmett Till's funeral was held. Emmett Till’s mother insisted on holding an open casket funeral in order to ensure that the brutality of that incident, the brutality of racism against her son, was not hidden from public view. Now, it's worth noting that President Biden will also be hosting some members of Emmett Till's family, including Reverend Wheeler Parker, he will serve as the introduction to President Biden.
And Reverend Parker was the younger cousin of Emmett Till, he is now in his 80s and he was actually the last living survivor that witnessed Till’s abduction. So, it will be a-- a rather-- a powerful moment held here at the White House with Emmett Till's family as president Biden signs this proclamation establishing this national monument.
But this all comes at an important time when you've really seen the White House and the president trying to become more vocal in this debate over how these painful moments in U.S. history are taught to students in schools. Of course, you have Vice President Kamala Harris travel down to Florida just last week to talk about the guidelines that have been in place regarding slavery, but in just a short while, the president will be trying to honor Emmett Till and his family trying to ensure that these moments are not erased from American history.
***
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
7/25/2023
12:15 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: Peter, this is also happening as some states are being accused of chipping away at the teaching of black history, the accurate teaching. Ron DeSantis has been accused by the Washington Post editorial board, just yesterday, of trying to quote “whitewash slavery.”
And the second biggest song in the country right now is Try That In a Small Town sung by Jason Aldean whose music video was filmed outside a Tennessee courthouse where a black teenager was lynched 1927 and a race riot took place in 1946. And remember, it was all during Aldean’s Las Vegas performance that a gunman opened fire, killing 60 people in 2017.
So, how important is it to designate these monuments against this backdrop?
PETER BAKER: Well, it's an incredibly salient moment right now. Eugene talked about the history of Emmett Till and what it meant for the Civil Rights Movement, but was remarkable about this is not really history. It’s coming at a moment when we are, in fact, having a debate about how to understand the black experience in America, what America, you know, has done over the years in terms of its race relations.
Ron DeSantis is under fire, obviously, for that lesson plan that the State Board of Education approved in which it suggested to some people who had been enslaved, got valuable stills from it, as if it was a jobs program, obviously that sparked quite a furor nationwide and, you know, he’s doubled down on that rather than pulling back or trying to, you know, change that and so I think you are seeing this moment-- come at a moment of profound debate and President Biden’s going to wade into that.
We heard yesterday Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, engage on that from the White House podium, that this is not simply about Emmett Till, it's about today as well as about history and I think you'll hear him talk about that and about the need to confront the reality of the past rather than to put a smokescreen up and pretend it was something other than what it was.
…
12:18 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: So, I was very touched by that and in the climate of what we are seeing now, in the distortion of black history in some state curricula, how important is it, Peter, to remember to remember the legacy of what happened in our country as recently as the 1950s and '60s and arguably in some cases, still happening today?
PETER BAKER: Yeah, well it’s exactly right. In effect, this ceremony today, that play, the movie that came out recently, all of which are meant to, in effect, to introduce or reintroduce to a new generation of Americans the story of Emmett Till, not because his story by itself is the most important thing. It's because his story is a part of a broader story, a broader story of young African Americans in the South, but not just in the South but particularly in the South, obviously subjected to violence, that the-- Jim Crow laws to repression. Emmett Till's case came long before Martin Luther King became famous, long before the March on Washington, and Selma and the other iconic moments of the Civil Rights Movement and I think that there's a moment now for him to be remembered and his case to be remembered because of the outrage it did spark in the North, the outrage it did spark among many white Americans who were shocked to see what happened and the beginning in some ways of a pretty profound change in the country in that era.
