While MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell was away from her Andrea Mitchell Reports show on Thursday, there was still plenty of liberal bias as substitute host Chris Jansing moderated a segment with New York Times political reporter Nick Confessore and liberal Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus to discuss the Republican tax cut plan. After Jansing asked for Confessore's "take" on how it would effect the 2018 elections, the Times reporter actually suggested that voters would hold the tax cut against Republicans because "people aren't dumb."
And for her part, Marcus made a crack about a "nice, big irresponsible tax cut" being the best way to unite Republicans. And yesterday, on MSNBC's MTP Daily, Marcus notably showed her left-leaning views about welfare and economics as she complained that enacting work requirements for food stamp benefits would "make people's lives" "a little bit more miserable."
In the last segment of Thursday's show, Marcus responded to the Republican rally with President Donald Trump as she snarked:
Nothing brings the Republican party together like a nice, big irresponsible tax cut, I guess. I was a little disappointed in Vice President Pence because even though he did his usual remarkable job of kind of lathering on and layering on the praise, he didn't use my favorite adjective, which is "broad-shouldered," but he used almost all the other ones.
Host Jansing soon posed:
The Republican tax bill, Nick, was the least popular piece of legislation in decades. So what are the political implications? Again, watching this, Republicans clearly think they've got the wind at their back, things aren't as bad as Democrats would have thought for Republicans going into 2018. What's your take on it?
Confessore essentially insinuated that it would be "dumb" for voters to agree with the Republican tax cuts as he responded:
Look, I think this is probably bad for them in 2018, you know, a lot of the benefits for taxpayers are not going to kick in until after the elections. I also think that people aren't dumb, and they understand what this bill is and how it works and why it works the way it does. I mean, yes, there are small tax cuts for middle class people -- some middle class people -- but most of the money is for very wealthy people and big corporations.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Wednesday, December 20, MTP Daily, and the Thursday, December 21, Andrea Mitchell Reports from MSNBC:
From the December 20, MTP Daily:
5:24 p.m. ET
CHUCK TODD: What I don't understand is, what political planet are they from if they really aren't going to tackle Medicare and Medicaid?
RUTH MARCUS: Republicans?
TODD: Yeah, look, I know what Paul Ryan wants to do, but candidate Donald Trump said "no cuts." And that's going to get shoved down their throats a million times.
MARCUS: How many times are you going to run that clip? "I'm not going to touch your Social Security -- I'm not going to touch your Medicare." They will get zero -- a certain number that's less than zero political support or backing from Democrats, and they will expose themselves to harm.
TODD: What Republican on the ballot in '18 is going to get behind that?
MARCUS: I was talking to a senior Republican about this the other day -- there's just no appetite for that, so all the handwringing -- but here's what they can do that I think there is appetite for, is, so go after programs like SNAP -- what we used to call food stamps. Add things like work requirements to food stamps -- just make people's lives that are already pretty miserable a little bit more miserable because those are not their voters.
(...)
From the December 21, Andrea Mitchell Reports:
12:51 p.m. ET
RUTH MARCUS,: Nothing brings the Republican party together like a nice, big irresponsible tax cut, I guess. I was a little disappointed in Vice President Pence because even though he did his usual remarkable job of kind of lathering on and layering on the praise, he didn't use my favorite adjective, which is "broad-shouldered," but he used almost all the other ones.
CHRIS JANSING: He didn't use "bigly" either -- that's nitpicking. The Republican tax bill, Nick, was the least popular piece of legislation in decades. So what are the political implications? Again, watching this, Republicans clearly think they've got the wind at their back, things aren't as bad as Democrats would have thought for Republicans going into 2018. What's your take on it?
NICK CONFESSORE: Look, I think this is probably bad for them in 2018, you know, a lot of the benefits for taxpayers are not going to kick in until after the elections. I also think that people aren't dumb, and they understand what this bill is and how it works and why it works the way it does. I mean, yes, there are small tax cuts for middle class people -- some middle class people -- but most of the money is for very wealthy people and big corporations.
JANSING: And so do you see those clips that we just saw being used in a whole series of campaign ads?
CONFESSORE: I sure do.
