The liberal claim that Republicans are engaging in a perpetual “war on women” seems to have taken a new turn on MSNBC. No longer does the term “war on women” apply only to access to abortion but now encompasses voting rights as well.
Appearing on MSNBC on October 29, liberal MSNBC host Thomas Roberts claimed that Republicans are trying to restrict a woman’s access to the ballot box. This comes one week after fill-in host Michael Eric Dyson made a similar complaint on The Ed Show. [See video after jump.]
Speaking with Terry O’Neill, president of the liberal National Organization for Women, Roberts introduced a segment that initially centered around abortion before quickly focusing on new voting laws in Texas. O’Neill began her talking points by claiming that:
The Republican Party in Texas is not only waging war on women's access to reproductive health care, they're even waging war on women's access to the ballot box. They are now enforcing rules that are aimed to stop women from voting.
Roberts seemed happy to take Ms. O’Neill’s bait playing a clip of State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), who is running for governor of Texas, complaining that:
I was required to sign an affidavit because the name on my voter registration card is slightly different than the name on my driver's license. My driver's license includes my maiden name. My voter registration card does not.
Roberts continued the narrative asking:
So are women getting the wake-up call that they need about what's taking place for Republicans there trying not just to restrict access to affordable health care, health care that they want, but their vote?
Nowhere in the segment did Roberts or O’Neill explain how Wendy Davis or any woman was prevented from voting, only that the state senator was required to sign an affidavit proving that she was who her voter registration says she was. In fact, according to the Texas Secretary of State website, if there is a confliction regarding your name when you vote, “You may continue to vote during this period. If you do not have your certificate in hand, you may sign an affidavit at the polls and present a form of identification.”
Rather than actually inform viewers of the provisions of the Texas law, Roberts and Ms. O’Neill seemed perfectly content misleading their audience, all the better to poison their viewers, particularly women, against voting Republican.
At MSNBC, the network has moved far beyond reporting the news with a liberal spin. Instead the goal is distorting the news to further a liberal agenda. Roberts should be ashamed of himself for sacrificing journalistic credibility in service of reliably toeing the party line.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
October 29, 2013
11:42 a.m. Eastern
THOMAS ROBERTS: Let's talk, though, Terry the case because this is going to be key in the gubernatorial race there in Texas which will likely pit the Attorney General, Greg Abbott, against Wendy Davis, and the Democrat that we all now know became famous for filibustering the anti-abortion bill and Abbott is staunchly anti-abortion, even in cases of incest and rape. So how do you think the battle is going to play out when it comes to the gubernatorial race?
TERRY O’NEILL: You know, I hope that Wendy Davis wins. I think she has a strong chance of winning and I think a major reason why she has such a strong chance of winning is that women are waking up to this war on them that the Republican Party is waging. And it gives me no pleasure to identify the people leading this war as Republicans. It's not good for the country, but facts are facts. The Republican Party in Texas is not only waging war on women's access to reproductive health care, they're even waging war on women's access to the ballot box. They are now enforcing rules that are aimed to stop women from voting. It's absolutely outrageous. Women are getting that. And I predict that in the general election, you're going to see a huge wave of women standing up, going to the ballot box, insisting on voting and saying we will not accept this.
ROBERTS: And Terry, I want to show that to everybody because it was Wendy Davis who experienced a problem that she encountered going to vote. Take a look.
WENDY DAVIS: Like many women who are voting in Texas today, I was required to sign an affidavit because the name on my voter registration card is slightly different than the name on my driver's license. My driver's license includes my maiden name. My voter registration card does not.
ROBERTS: So this came a week after a district judge ran into the same problem, Terry. So are women getting the wake-up call that they need about what's taking place for Republicans there trying not just to restrict access to affordable health care, health care that they want, but their vote.
O’NEILL: Absolutely. I think that people are becoming completely outraged. By the way, the men are with us in insisting that women should have a right to vote. And for the state of Texas to say, you know, Greg Abbott has a huge gender gap. We know that women are not going to support him for governor so we're going to stop women from voting? You know, men and women in Texas are absolutely not going to accept this. Now, it may take some time for us to reclaim the country because the redistricting that was started in 2010 has really made it hard for us. But I predict that by 2020 all of these guys are either going to be really behaving as if they believe in democracy or they're going to be gone and they will have been replaced by elected officials who understand that democracy is for all of us.
