On the April 17 edition of his afternoon program, MSNBC's Martin Bashir mocked Mitt Romney’s unabashed support for our military. Bashir insulted Romney claiming that, “for all his endless references to military personnel, was this not the same Mitt Romney who managed to dodge the draft during Vietnam and spent most of his time I believe in France as a Mormon missionary?”
Bashir has a storied history of slandering conservatives for what he calls ‘chicken hawks’ as individuals who deliberately dodge the draft. Last October, Bashir falsely claimed Herman Cain dodged the draft despite serving as a civilian employee in the Department of the Navy during the Vietnam War. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Bashir loves to invoke Scripture as a means of attacking Republicans but believes doing missionary work for the Mormon church is no excuse for not serving in Vietnam. Of course, it doesn't seem to bother the British-born Bashir that his self-described socialist colleague Lawrence O’Donnell avoided the draft by getting a college deferment. And indeed, Bashir himself never served in the military either, although presumably he had every opportunity to serve in the British armed forces. Bashir was 19 in 1982 when the British prosecuted and won the Falklands War.
Bashir’s disgusting attack should be expected from extremists at the Daily Kos but as a so-called ‘journalist’ we would expect some standards from the MSNBC host, but apparently religious tolerance isn’t in Bashir’s repertoire.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
MARTIN BASHIR
April 17, 2012
3:08 p.m.MARTIN BASHIR: David [Corn], although Mitt Romney won't talk about his personal taxes. He does like to talk a lot about the military and veterans in particular. He likes to talk about them at nearly every event. Take a look.
MITT ROMNEY: Do we have any veterans or members of our armed services here? Please raise your hand. Thank you, be recognized. Do we have any veterans or members of our armed services here? Please raise your hand. Do we have any veterans here or members of the armed services here? Please raise your hand. Do we have any veterans or members of our armed forces here? Please raise your arm, your hand. . Do we have any veterans here, members of our armed forces here? Raise your hand be recognized.
BASHIR: Now David [Corn], for all his endless references to military personnel, was this not the same Mitt Romney who managed to dodge the draft during Vietnam and spent most of his time I believe in France as a Mormon missionary?
