Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC's Krystal Ball cracked that Republicans "must feel like they should just take a vow of silence" until the election as she alluded to New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm's meltdown with a reporter and Mike Huckabee's recent comments about the so-called "war on women."
Referring to Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers giving the Republican response to the State of the Union address, Ball observed:
She is a different face of the Republican Party, and everything she did was completely overshadowed. Now, we've got Michael Grimm, we had Mike Huckabee last week with his comments about libidos and uncle sugar, and the Republican Party must feel like they should just take a vow of silence between now and the election to do themselves some good.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Wednesday, January 29, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, substitute hosted by Ari Melber, on MSNBC:
ARI MELBER: Now, Krystal, what you see there is a threat, which is serious and a lot of people would feel potentially intimidated by it. I'm going to throw you off the balcony. And he looks angry enough and reckless enough that you could feel it's credible. And yet, the response that you don't usually see in a bar brawl or physical altercation of this nature is, "Hey, it's a valid question."
KRYSTAL BALL: It's, that was my favorite piece of this, in a way, is that the reporter is still, like, "What's the problem? It's a valid question." He's still operating on that level of like, "I'm just doing my job. I don't understand why you're so upset."
And I think that's a piece of this, if he wasn't over the top. He wasn't overly aggressive, the reporter. And for Grimm to just go after him like that and especially on such a big night. I mean, that's the piece of this that is so important.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers gave a perfectly fine State of the Union response. She is a different face of the Republican Party, and everything she did was completely overshadowed. Now, we've got Michael Grimm, we had Mike Huckabee last week with his comments about libidos and uncle sugar, and the Republican Party must feel like they should just take a vow of silence between now and the election to do themselves some good.
--Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Brad Wilmouth on Twitter.
