On Friday's The Last Word on MSNBC, it was the place for demonizing Republicans as regular MSNBC guests Joan Walsh and Nancy Giles called Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan a "monster" and declared that the way Senate Republicans had handled health care reform has been "criminal."
After substitute host Ari Melber devoted the first part of the segment to a woman, Karen, and her adult disabled son, Mike, who are afraid he will be forced to move away from home and live in a hospital or nursing home, the MSNBC host turned to Walsh -- an MSNBC political analyst who is currently with the left-wing The Nation magazine -- and posed: "Joan, you've been covering the health care battles for seven plus years. I wonder what you're thinking?"
Walsh got emotional and took aim at Speaker Ryan as she began:
I'm thinking, "What the hell kind of a country are we, Ari, that Michael has to lose sleep wondering if he can stay in his home with his family?" I mean, what is this family supposed to do? Paul Ryan has been dreaming about cutting this program since he was sitting -- hanging out at keggers in college -- he's told that story.
As Giles injected, "What kind of a man is he?" Walsh became more harsh as she continued:
What kind of a monster is he? Who dreams of cutting Medicaid? They act like people are merely takers -- they act like they don't understand hardship of any kind. Paul Ryan -- who actually got Social Security as a survivor when his father died, God bless him. I mean, the cruelty -- Karen uses that word -- it's the only word we can use -- the cruelty of this bill is beyond belief.
After Melber recalled that Mike had spoken of being frightened since President Donald Trump was elected, he went to Giles -- a CBS News Sunday Morning contributor -- who did her own part to launch into Republicans. Giles:
I am so overwhelmed at Mike and Karen. I don't even know really what to say. I mean, for starters, that anybody could think the kind of care that he gets and that his mom supports him getting is a luxury, and is not something that is his right as a human being, I just find appalling. I echo what Joan said. I just -- I'm really confused about what kind of country we are?
The CBS contributor seemed to mix up Medicaid and Medicare, and even Social Security as she suggested that Republican reforms to Medicaid would be tampering with benefits that were "earned," and charged that Republican behavior had been "criminal":
We are revealed by how we treat our most vulnerable citizens, and if an inefficient system that profits some people could mean that an earned right -- not, you know, not a gift. I mean, Medicaid and Social Security -- they are not gifts. These are things that we earn -- that something like that could be denied someone like Mike who has thrived and used it and has been able to express himself, to not have a chance for his voice to be expressed is just criminal. It's criminal.
