Once again MSNBC has shown it is more a Democratic operative rather than an actual news organization. On Thursday morning, Obama campaign national press secretary Ben LaBolt appeared on both CNN’s Starting Point and MSNBC Live, and the interviews could not have been more different.
LaBolt got the kid glove treatment from MSNBC's Thomas Roberts, who first teed him up to slam the Romney campaign's "sloppy messaging." Contrast that with CNN"s Soledad O'Brien grilling LaBolt on whether ObamaCare's individual mandate was a tax or a penalty. [Video coming soon. MP3 audio here.]
When he tried to deflect scrutiny and attack Mitt Romney, O'Brien would have none of it. "Yeah but I'm not talking about Mitt Romney. I'm not talking about Mitt Romney. Let me stop you there, because I'm talking about President Obama," she told him.
When LaBolt claimed the Obama administration had always argued that the mandate was a penalty, O'Brien challenged such an assertion with the following:
"No, your argument before the court honestly also said that it could be – one of the side arguments, kind of like the backup argument was that it was a tax. So I did see the arguments before the Supreme Court."
In addition, O'Brien pointed out that Obama has never formally stated his opinion and instead relies on campaign surrogates to answer for him. One of the panelists, Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker continued the tough line of questioning by asking Ben this question:
"The argument before the Supreme Court was, if you don't agree that this is constitutional under the Commerce Clause, surely you agree it is constitutional under Congress' power to levee taxes. And that is the argument that the Supreme Court took. So how can you sit there and say you guys didn't go before the Supreme Court and make that argument?"
"But he said it's administered by the IRS. What does the IRS do?" he continued grilling LaBolt.
Fast forward exactly three hours on MSNBC and there was no such tough questioning. Instead anchor Thomas Roberts tossed softball questions like:
"The Wall Street Journal says in an op-ed about this that Mr. Fehrnstrom is part of the Boston coterie who are closest to Mr. Romney and wouldn't say such a thing without the candidate's approval. When you see what's going on and kind of the tail wagging the dog so to speak, what's the Obama’s campaign take on the sloppy messaging here?"
Roberts, who just last week brought on a cancer survivor to tout the benefits of ObamaCare continued the softball "interview" claiming that the Supreme Court ruling was a "big win for the president and reelection," going so far as to ask LaBolt how the president can convince the American people that this law was good for the country in the first place.
CNN actually showed journalistic integrity when an Obama campaign official appeared on the network, whereas MSNBC continued to be a mouthpiece for Obama.
See relevant transcript below.
CNN
Starting Point w/ Soledad O’Brien
07/05/2012
8:05 a.m. EDT
SOLEDAD O’BRIEN: All that brings us to Ben LaBolt, he's the Obama campaign national press secretary. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us this morning. We appreciate it. So, Mitt Romney --
BEN LABOLT, OBAMA CAMPAIGN: Good morning, Soledad. Thanks.
O'BRIEN: I’m well, thank you. Mitt Romney has said it's a tax because the Supreme Court says it's a tax. So, he believes it's a tax. The president's advisers say it's a penalty. The president himself in the past has said it's absolutely not a tax. Let's play a little bit what the president said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it's saying is that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you -- any more than the fact that right now everybody in America just about has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: OK. Ben, so does President Obama consider this to be a penalty as his spokesperson told me the other day? Or does he think that it is a tax as the Supreme Court has now said?
LABOLT: Well, we're the ones that have been consistent here. We believe that it's a penalty. And it actually includes the largest health care tax cut in history -- $4,800 for 19 million Americans. What hasn't gotten a lot of attention was that Mitt Romney not only disagreed with his campaign advisers yesterday but he disagreed with himself. As recently as 2009 he referred to his plan -- the mandate --
O'BRIEN: Yeah but I'm not talking about Mitt Romney. I'm not talking about Mitt Romney. Let me stop you there, because I'm talking about President Obama.
LABOLT: OK.
O'BRIEN: Does he believe this is tax? Or does he believe it's a penalty? He actually hasn't said yet, as I'm sure you know. He has not specifically said. His spokesperson sitting here with me said it's a penalty. Supreme Court has said it's a tax. What does he believe?
LABOLT: That it's a penalty. You saw our arguments before the Supreme Court. You’ve seen what the president has said over the past several years that it's a penalty for that 1 percent of the population who can afford health insurance but hasn't chosen to get it. Because the fact is that has led the rest of us to pay a hidden tax of $1,000 a year, folks who are already covered. It drives up our premiums.
O'BRIEN: So, then he disagrees with the Supreme Court decision that says it's now a tax?
LABOLT: That's right. He's said that it's a penalty. You saw our arguments before the court. And
O'BRIEN: No, your argument before the court honestly also said that it could be -- one of the side arguments, kind of like the backup argument was that it was a tax. So I did see the arguments before the Supreme Court.
LABOLT: It never referred to it as -- it never referred to it as a tax. It said it was a penalty. And that's under the section of the law that is the tax code, but it said very specifically that it's a penalty.
O'BRIEN: Let's turn for a minute about what the strategy is. Does the campaign want to continue talking about the health care law and whether it's a tax, a penalty, or, you know, the various synonyms that go with that? Or is it more comfortable for the campaign to talk about the economy? Is that more of a problem, more challenging?
LABOLT: Well, I think we're going to talk about -- we're certainly going to talk about the economy. That's the core contrast on the ballot this fall and what the president's going to be talking about in the next two days in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Voters have the opportunity to break the stalemate at the polls. Are we going to reward the wealthy with special breaks, strip back oversight from banks and polluters and assume that the market will take care of the rest, like Mitt Romney has suggested? Or are we going to restore economic security for the middle class by investing in education? Investing in research and development? You know, that will be the core contrast. But the fact is, Mitt Romney is going to have to explain what his alternative to the Affordable Care Act is, because he said kill Obamacare dead on the first day. Where does that leave the millions of people who have pre-existing conditions in this country? Is he going to allow insurance companies to continue to discriminate against women and charge them $1 billion more a year for their health insurance? All the public polling shows that the American people do not want to see the Affordable Care Act repealed. Mitt Romney has presented no alternative. The Republican leadership, Senator McConnell, has proposed no alternative. You saw that on the Sunday shows last week. And then he will have to explain how he's going to have to deal with this issue.
O'BRIEN: Right.
RYAN LIZZA: Ben, it's Ryan Lizza, how are you doing this morning?
LABOLT: Doing well.
LIZZA: I wanted to go back to something Soledad said there when she was pressing you on the government's argument was before the Supreme Court. Now, Chief Justice Roberts pressed your Solicitor General or the Obama solicitor general on this issue. Verrilli had an opportunity to say this was a penalty but instead he said, Chief Justice, this is administered by the IRS. They talked about how it was under the tax code. The argument before the Supreme Court was, if you don't agree that this is constitutional under the Commerce Clause, surely you agree it is constitutional under Congress' power to levee taxes. And that is the argument that the Supreme Court took. So how can you sit there and say that you guys didn't go before the Supreme Court and make that argument?
LABOLT: Review the court script -- the court transcripts, Ryan. At no point did Verrilli or any of the government lawyers say that it was a tax.
LIZZA: But he said it's administered by the IRS. What does the IRS do?
O'BRIEN: On April 15th, Tax Day, I believe, if I'm not mistaken on that.
LIZZA: What did he mean when he said it's administered by the IRS?
LABOLT: Nowhere during the arguments -- we are the ones who have been consistent here. Consistent that it's a penalty. Mitt Romney has disagreed with his own campaign advisers and disagreed with himself about whether his own mandate is a tax. He made clear in 2009 in a "USA Today" op-ed that it was a tax.
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
07/05/2012
11:03 a.m. EDT
THOMAS ROBERTS: Joining me now is Ben LaBolt the national press secretary for the Obama campaign. Ben it’s nice to see you this morning and we’re going to talk about the bus tour in a moment. Also the surrogates from the Romney camp that are trailing along on the bumper but I want to start out with Mitt Romney’s campaign reversal on the president’s health care law. And his comments he gave out to CBS. Take a listen.
MITT ROMNEY: I said that I agreed with the descent and the descent made it clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the descent lost. It’s in the minority. And so now the Supreme Court has spoken. There is no way around that. You can try and say you wish they had decided a different way, but they didn't. They concluded it was a tax. That’s what it is.
ROBERTS: So Mitt Romney Ben playing clean up here in this July 4th interview that he gave because it's a big shift from what his adviser Eric Fernstrom told our own Chuck Todd right here on MSNBC monday. The "Wall Street Journal" says in an op-ed about this that Mr. Fehrnstrom is part of the Boston coterie who are closest to Mr. Romney and wouldn't say such a thing without the candidate's approval. When you see what's going on and kind of the tail wagging the dog so to speak, what's the Obama’s campaign take on the sloppy messaging here?
BEN LABOLT: Well Mitt Romney can't get his story straight on health care. Not only did he disagree with what his own campaign advisers said this week, but he disagreed with the past comments. He’d previously labeled the mandate in Massachusetts a tax as recently as 2009 in a USA Today op-ed. But I think part of the reason for this is you know six years ago Mitt Romney agreed with the president that we should take on rising health care costs and provide affordable accesable health care to people. He included a penalty mandate in his legislation in Massachusetts. He said that his legislation should serve as a national model and it did. And now six years later apparently he doesn’t believe any of those things, he thinks we should allow insurance companies to discriminate against you if you have a preexisting condition or charge women a billion dollars more a year for their health insurance.
ROBERTS: So Ben when we talk about though what President Obama believes in respect to this fee being a penalty and not a tax and how it was sold to the American people and then reconciling that with what the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts has said, how did the two add up so that the president can try to convince people why his legislation was good for the country in the first place. If he still believes that this was always a penalty in the first place however the Supreme Court is the one labeling it as a tax.
LABOLT: Well the court upheld the law. The penalty hits the 1% of the population who can afford health insurance, but hasn't gone to get it. So they’re going to emergency rooms rather than seeking preventive treatment which is driving a hidden tax on the rest of us. The 85% of the population that does have health insurance. Bumping up premiums for individuals a thousand dollars a year.
ROBERTS: So if the president though doesn't agree it's a tax, he has to be thankful though that the Supreme Court has decided that it is.
LABOLT: Well you know this is a penalty. It’s administered through the tax code. There are similar penalties out there. For example, if you are an insurance company and you failed to notify somebody who’s lost their job that they are available for COBRA coverage or a wine producer who mislabeled their wine. There are similar penalties under the tax code ultimately the court said that this was constitutional.
ROBERTS: Alright Ben that was a big win last week for the president and reelection. The shift now coming out tomorrow for the economy and the june jobs report. It could be a blow.
