Journalistic integrity took another Monday afternoon on MSNBC, with another casualty in the liberal plot to paint President Trump as a closet neo-Nazi Klansman. Piling in on the liberal media frenzy following Saturday’s sad events at Charlottesville, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing anchored a segment with Trump critic Mark Potok, formerly of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Now Editor-in-Chief of the SPLC’s Hatewatch Blog, Mr. Potok is a mainstay within the liberal propaganda machine. But after witnessing the softball interview with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, you’ll realize she seems to be as well.
After first being asked if the nation was regressing back into the ideology of right wing hate, Potok replied:
I think we absolutely are. I mean, look, the important thing to say in all of this, or perhaps one of the important things to say, is the incredible responsibility that Donald Trump has. You know, this rally that led to the terrorist attack was billed as unite the right. I think none of the kind of bottom feeders who were actually there leading this organization, this rally, had the kind of responsibility that, in fact, Donald Trump has had.
After Potok essentially stated that President Trump was more responsible for the white nationalist protest than the very organizers of the protest he added:
You know, let's not forget, this is a man who from the very beginning and even before his campaign, was essentially an unvarnished racist
Now if you guessed the anchor would somehow push back on that, you’re sadly mistaken. Instead Jansing played ‘devil’s advocate’ and, with a straight face, asking if that meant he condoned the white nationalist groups or the violence that happened in Charlottesville.
Jansing then wondered about whether he believed Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he said they were going after the white nationalists that turned violent, Potok Declared:
It rings absolutely false to me. You know Jeff Sessions is in charge of a justice department that recently decided the great problem with diversity in this country is that white people are being supposedly denied admission to colleges, based on their skin color.
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Below is a full transcript of the interview:
MSNBC Live
08/14/17
1:33 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS JANSING: Your website says or the Southern Poverty Law Center website says there are 917 active hate site groups across the country. Are we regressing as a nation that rejects this abhorrent ideology?
MARK POTOK: Yeah. I think we absolutely are. I mean, look, the important thing to say in all of this, or perhaps one of the important things to say, is the incredible responsibility that Donald Trump has. You know, this rally that led to the terrorist attack was billed as unite the right. I think none of the kind of bottom feeders who were actually there leading this organization, this rally, had the kind of responsibility that, in fact, Donald Trump has had. You know, let's not forget, this is a man who from the very beginning and even before his campaign, was essentially an unvarnished racist, talking about things like encouraging people at his rallies to attack black protesters. Calling a Mexican judge, you know, unable to judge fairly in his case. On and on and on. So I really --
JANSING: Let me play devil's advocate for just a second. Does that mean he necessarily condones what we saw over the weekend in Charlottesville, or condones these kinds of groups, these very extremist groups?
POTOK: Well, presumably, he doesn't condone open terrorist murder. But let's remember, he had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the microphone today to finally say something about white supremacy. Let's remember, too, that, you know, one of his chief advisers, Sebastian Gorka, his supposed adviser on terrorism, said just a few days ago, six days ago, in fact, that a recent bombing of a mosque in Minneapolis was very likely a fake hate crime. And went on to accuse the left, quote, unquote, of staging all kinds of fake hate crimes. He also went on to say that there had never been -- never, ever been a major attack that was not connected to ISIS or Al Qaeda. And that is patently false. Of course, we had the attack on Saturday, we had the attack last year. Which Dylan roof in Charleston, South Carolina, and the list is very, very long. But this administration has resisted facing that reality, absolutely. Let's remember, too, Donald Trump at one point was considering changing the countering violent extremism program, the cve program, to something that would have been called the countering Islamic terrorism program. In other words, the ideas there is no such thing as terrorism from the people who have so vociferously supported Donald Trump on the white nationalist right.
JANSING: So, Mark, when Attorney General Sessions says as he did this morning, 'we're coming after these people, this kind of hate will not be tolerated, it cannot be tolerated in America.' does it ring true to you? Do you believe this administration is going to do something now?
POTOK: It rings absolutely false to me. You know Jeff Sessions is in charge of a justice department that recently decided the great problem with diversity in this country is that white people are being supposedly denied admission to colleges, based on their skin color. That to Jeff sessions is apparently the big problem out there. So, you know, I think the reality is -- let's also remember, Donald Trump has, as the head of his commission looking at supposed voter fraud -- Kris Kobach, the chief vote suppressor from Kansas, secretary of state of Kansas. So, no, I think there are many people within DOJ and the civil rights division who are absolutely good people. But the leadership is rotten. The stink is coming from the top.
JANSING: Mark Potok. Good to say you, lower often only speaking under these unfortunate, horrible circumstances. But I thank you so much for your expertise.
POTOK: A pleasure. Thanks for having me.
