On Friday's The Beat with Ari Melber -- a relatively new MSNBC show that recently replaced Greta Van Susteren's For the Record program -- host Melber not surprisingly assembled a panel of lefties to discuss the week's news for the show's regular "Fall Back" segment.
Former Ebony editor-in-chief Amy DuBois Barnett took aim at Caitlyn Jenner because the transgender Republican was recently seen wearing a pro-Donald Trump hat even after Trump's announced ban on transgenders in the military. Inserting race into the conversation, DuBois griped Jenner is "flaunting her residual white male privilege."
A bit later in the show, Melber went after White House advisor Stephen Miller over his sparring with CNN's Jim Acosta over immigration policy, leading longtime MSNBC contributor Joan Walsh to see Miller's use of the word "cosmopolitan" as a "white nationalist dog whistle."
When Barnett got her turn to speak, she recalled that Jenner was seen driving in a convertible wearing a pro-Trump hat. After noting that Jenner criticized the announced transgender ban, she added:
She's out here, you know, in her little hat, flaunting her residual white male privilege. It's obvious that the 65 years that she spent as a rich, white man is trumping -- no pun intended, or all pun intended -- the two or three years that she's spent as a transgender woman because that residual privilege is influencing her obvious support of Trump and his -- I have to say, you know -- homophobic agendas.
A bit later, Melber played a clip of Miller and Acosta with Miller deriding the CNN correspondent for having a "cosmopolitan" view:
STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: And it shows your cosmopolitan bias, and I just want to say --
JIM ACOSTA, CNN: It sounds like you're trying to engineer a racial and ethnic flow of people into the country through his policies.
MILLER: That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said --
After Melber took his shots at Miller, Walsh alluded to the word "cosmopolitan" having an "anti-Semitic" history, but then surprisingly dismissed the possibility of the White House advisor having meant it as such:
JOAN WALSH, THE NATION: And then I heard he got high fives back, you know, back behind the scenes, that people did think it went well -- that the extreme ideologues. "Cosmopolitan" is an insult with very old roots. It can often be anti-Semitic -- I think he's Jewish, so I don't think he's doing that.
MELBER: Yeah, I don't think he meant it that way.
But, as she continued, Walsh still suggested racism by Miller in the exchange: "But it's sort of exotic -- it's sort of just elite -- exotic elites, and it's just a complete nationalist -- white nationalist dog whistle."
Host Melber agreed: "Well, yeah, and he was there to brief on immigration policy, and ended up attacking people in personal language, which was just not a policy presentation."
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, August 4, The Beat with Ari Melber:
AMY DUBOIS BARNETT, EBONY MAGAZINE FORMER EDITOR IN CHIEF: My pick for "Fall Back" this week is Caitlyn Jenner, who was seen in Los Angeles this week touring around in a flashy, vintage convertible wearing one of those red, you know, "Make America Great" hats a week after Trump's plan to ban all transgender people from the military.
And, granted, Caitlyn did come out last week against the ban, and she talked about, you know, the fact that it was discriminatory, etc., but, clearly, clearly, she's a staunch Republican, and clearly she wants to make that known. She's out here, you know, in her little hat, flaunting her residual white male privilege.
It's obvious that the 65 years that she spent as a rich, white man is trumping -- no pun intended, or all pun intended -- the two or three years that she's spent as a transgender woman because that residual privilege is influencing her obvious support of Trump and his -- I have to say, you know -- homophobic agendas.
CHUCK NICE, COMEDIAN I, you know, when I, I just became aware of that right when you put that up.
ARI MELBER: You learn things watching The Beat.
NICE: You do learn things watching The Beat. And I just want to say, if only I could get my family to be as faithful to me as Trump supporters are to him.
(...)
STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: And it shows your cosmopolitan bias, and I just want to say --
JIM ACOSTA, CNN: It sounds like you're trying to engineer a racial and ethnic flow of people into the country through his policies.
MILLER: That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said --
MELBER: Stephen Miller, Joan Walsh, is back. I think he needs to fall back. And it was interesting -- the tell I noticed was at the end of that, there were a couple of exchanges like that, and, at the end, he did that thing you do at the end of, like, a really rough wedding toast where, like, you lose so bad that to not acknowledge it would be worse. So he looks at Sarah Huckabee Sanders and he's like, "Well, this wasn't as planned! Ha, ha, ha, I work at the White House! Bye!"
JOAN WALSH, THE NATION: And then I heard he got high fives back, you know, back behind the scenes, that people did think it went well -- that the extreme ideologues. "Cosmopolitan" is an insult with very old roots. It can often be anti-Semitic -- I think he's Jewish, so I don't think he's doing that.
MELBER: Yeah, I don't think he meant it that way.
WALSH: But it's sort of exotic -- it's sort of just elite -- exotic elites, and it's just a complete nationalist -- white nationalist dog whistle.
MELBER: Well, yeah, and he was there to brief on immigration policy, and ended up attacking people in personal language, which was just not a policy presentation.
