On Tuesday's The 11th Hour show, MSNBC host Brian Williams, the disgraced hack who lost his NBC Nightly News anchoring job for repeated lies and false stories, tastelessly encouraged his guest, former Democratic Senator Al Franken, to excoriate Ted Cruz with a joke about how everyone "hates" the Republican.
Showing he's no better at comedy than he is lying, Williams repeated, "There are two types of people in the U.S. Senate -- people who hate Ted Cruz and Ted Cruz."
Although the MSNBC host attributed the crack to an unnamed Democratic Senator, he first quoted it on his show last month, crediting it to Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, thus showing that Williams seems to still be oddly fixated on the disgraced anti-Republican group that he can't stop citing on his show.
The segment began with a soundbite of Senator Cruz complaining to his Democratic colleagues that they keep proposing gun control legislation after high-profile mass shootings even though their ideas would not have stopped those shootings:
Every time there's a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders. (editing jump) What happens in this committee after every mass shooting, is Democrats propose taking away guns from law abiding citizens because that's their political agenda. But what they propose, -- not only does it not reduce crime, it makes it worse.
Williams then reacted dismissively to Senator Cruz's complaints: "The President's calls for new gun control measures are hitting expected and entirely predictable resistance from people like Ted Cruz -- from the GOP. It's an all too familiar cycle by now..."
After introducing former Senator Franken, Williams began by making a crack at Senator Cruz's expense:
Senator, I'm duty bound to repeat a phrase a Democratic Senator told me. "There are two types of people in the U.S. Senate -- people who hate Ted Cruz and Ted Cruz." With that in mind, your reaction to Ted Cruz, especially in light of what we just heard from our friend Sam in Florida?
But, on the February 18 show, during a discussion of Senator Cruz traveling to Cancun during his state's big power outage, Williams had credited Rick Wilson with the quip:
Lindsey Graham likes to joke that, "if Ted Cruz murdered someone in the Senate" -- what is it? No, "If Ted Cruz were murdered in the Senate, there wouldn't be a single vote to convict." Rick Wilson always repeats the joke, "There are two types of people -- people who hate Ted Cruz, and Ted Cruz." Is Ted Cruz as bad as he is being portrayed in this 12-hour period?
Wilson had tweeted out the jab earlier in the day. Notably, in the aftermath of the Lincoln Project's dirty laundry becoming public, the former frequent guest has not been seen on the show since January 25.
Returning to Tuesday's show, after Franken responded by misleadingly portraying Cruz as dishonest about the gun issue, Williams followed up by fretting that moderate West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin might be the deciding vote to stop his colleagues from enacting more gun control: "Let me ask about a Democratic member, and that's Joe Manchin. And I don't know any other way to put this. Is it fair that, in effect, Joe Manchin of West Virginia gets veto power over gun legislation in that chamber, absent any change to the filibuster?"
This episode of MSNBC's The 11th Hour with Brian Williams was sponsored in part by Fingerhut. Their contact information is linked.
MSNBC
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
March 24, 2021
11:35 p.m. Eastern
SENATOR TED CRUZ (R-TX): Every time there's a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders. (editing jump) What happens in this committee after every mass shooting, is Democrats propose taking away guns from law abiding citizens because that's their political agenda. But what they propose, -- not only does it not reduce crime, it makes it worse.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: The President's calls for new gun control measures are hitting expected and entirely predictable resistance from people like Ted Cruz -- from the GOP. It's an all too familiar cycle by now, and one our next guest is well acquainted with. Back with us tonight, former Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken, who these days has the good fortune to host a podcast already bearing his name.
Senator, I'm duty bound to repeat a phrase a Democratic Senator told me. "There are two types of people in the U.S. Senate -- people who hate Ted Cruz and Ted Cruz." With that in mind, your reaction to Ted Cruz, especially in light of what we just heard from our friend Sam in Florida?
FORMER SENATOR AL FRANKEN (D-MN): You know, he said that every time there's a mass shooting or a shooting, that we have one of these hearings. First of all, this hearing was called well before this in Atlanta. And I was in the Senate in 2017, and I don't recall having 346 of these hearings because that's how many mass shootings we had in that year in the United States. He did say that we had called this hearing after -- when this happened.
You know, after Cancun when his first instinct was to say, "Oh, I just brought my kids there and I was going to fly right back that day," I mean, after that, he should really think about maybe not lying quite so much because you don't want a reputation. Maybe that's why your categories of who likes Ted Cruz was so accurate.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Let me ask about a Democratic member, and that's Joe Manchin. And I don't know any other way to put this. Is it fair that, in effect, Joe Manchin of West Virginia gets veto power over gun legislation in that chamber, absent any change to the filibuster?
(...)
February 18, 2021
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Lindsey Graham likes to joke that, "if Ted Cruz murdered someone in the Senate" -- what is it? No, "If Ted Cruz were murdered in the Senate, there wouldn't be a single vote to convict." Rick Wilson always repeats the joke, "There are two types of people -- people who hate Ted Cruz, and Ted Cruz." Is Ted Cruz as bad as he is being portrayed in this 12-hour period?
MARK MCKINNON, THE CIRCUS: Now, there are people who say they saw him putting on a human suit.
