Appearing on MSNBC’s The Beat early Tuesday night, frequent MSNBC guest and Fordham University Professor Christina Greer smeared the memory of late University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts as “a girl in Iowa” that “Fox News is talking about” instead of going all-in on the plea deal for Michael Cohen and the verdict in the Paul Manafort trial.
Both legal stories dominated Fox News Channel programming on Tuesday with multiple segments every hour, but that didn’t stop Greer from making that sweeping generalization and trivializing the death of a young college student allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien from Mexico.
Greer built up to this sickening low blow when she told fill-in host Ali Velshi that, concerning Trump scandals, she’s “been ringing the alarm on this show for months now, the separation of powers is not working because the Republican has not stood up to this president not once.”
Connecting this to the Cohen and Manafort cases, Greer opined that the President’s supporters “have been so willing to move the goal post every single time” for Trump “[n]o matter what he says, no matter what he does.”
She added that “[t]he fact that” Trump was even allowed to become President “after the Access Hollywood tape let me know for a fact that the Republican Party is actually not working on behalf of the American people” and instead for Trump after he “bull[ied] them into their silence and I don't think today changes as much, unfortunately.”
She then wrapped up the show with the dismissal of Tibbetts being a big news story that went unchallenged by Velshi and panelists Nick Akerman, Natasha Bertrand, and Bill Kristol:
I’m sure we’ll hear what he has to say about this at his — his rally, but Fox News is talking about, you know, a girl in Iowa and not this, right? And, tomorrow morning, we know he’ll wake up in tweak and sort of, you know, besmirch the reputation of Michael Cohen and all the people around him and then go back to Mueller. And this has, obviously, been boiled down to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Based on a NewsBusters analysis of MSNBC’s programming since first reports of Tibbetts’s body arrived around 9:00 a.m. Eastern, Greer’s four-second mention of Tibbetts was the network’s only allusion on Tuesday to the now-deceased Iowa student.
NOTE: That’s as of this blog’s publication and after keyword and manual searches of MSNBC programming from 9:00 a.m. Eastern to 8:00 p.m. Eastern (with the exception of a two-minute gap on Andrea Mitchell Reports when the DirecTV signal went out before an Xfinity record kicked in).
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s The Beat on August 21, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s The Beat
August 21, 2018
6:57 p.m. EasternALI VELSHI: Alright, Christina Greer, to — to you and I hear you. When’s the bridge that’s a bridge too far going to show up, right? To a lot of people, I think, maybe today might have been it, but a lot of people —
CHRISTINA GREER: These are the same people who —
VELSHI: — the pee tape should have done it.
GREER: — who were waiting for the n-word three days ago, right? I mean, so we know that Donald Trump has surrounded himself and possibly given instructions to Michael Cohen, someone who he has trusted for a very long time. We know Donald Trump is engaged in this behavior in Atlanta city, in Queens, in all over, you know, the five boroughs for decades. This is just a, you know, a con that’s gone a little too far now the federal government, but I just don’t see and this is — I’ve been ringing the alarm on this show for months now, the separation of powers is not working because the Republican has not stood up to this president not once. So, even if there is a guilty verdict from Manafort. Even though Cohen has turned himself in. Eight counts here, eight counts there. I still think that they have been so willing to move the goal post every single time with this President. No matter what he says, no matter what he does, right? The fact that he was sworn in as President after the Access Hollywood tape let me know for a fact that the Republican Party is actually not working on behalf of the American people. They are working on behalf of President Trump and he’s been able to bully them into their silence and I don't think today changes as much, unfortunately. I’m sure we’ll hear what he has to say about this at his — his rally, but Fox News is talking about, you know, a girl in Iowa and not this, right? And, tomorrow morning, we know he’ll wake up in tweak and sort of, you know, besmirch the reputation of Michael Cohen and all the people around him and then go back to Mueller. And this has, obviously, been boiled down to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
