During a discussion about the ongoing racial scandal swirling around Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell actually fretted that calls for his resignation ran the “risk of appearing too politically correct” and may even create “blowback” against Democrats.
Mitchell seemed to blame Trump voters for the concern: “And is there potential blowback here? A risk of appearing too politically correct, something that may turn off attempts to woo the Trump voters, the Trump Democrats back in?” While liberal Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus did not share Mitchell’s concern about political “blowback” if Northam resigned, she did worry that “the actual real-world risk seems to me to be whether we’re moving with just way too much rapidity when there is a little bit – a little bit factual development to figure out here.”
“And I don’t want anybody to get too alarmed by what I’m saying,” Marcus hastened to add as she suggested that Northam was possibly being treated unfairly. “In other words, he first admitted or said that it was him....Then he came out with this other explanation. Is there any reason whatsoever to credit this other explanation?,” she wondered. The columnist continued, “It has not emerged yet. But – so maybe there is some risk in being precipitous.”
After making it clear that a 1984 picture on Northam’s college yearbook page of a person in blackface standing next to a person in a KKK costume was “not appropriate,” “offensive,” and “repulsive,” Marcus again cautioned: “I see a little risk of not letting the process play itself out to make sure we’re absolutely being fair to the Governor, that’s the only risk I see.”
Just imagine if a Republican was caught up in a similar scandal, can anyone imagine media figures like Andrea Mitchell and Ruth Marcus warning against being “too politically correct” or “moving with too much rapidity” in denouncing the public official?
Here is a transcript of the February 4 exchange:
12:51 PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: And is there potential blowback here? A risk of appearing too politically correct, something that may turn off attempts to woo the Trump voters, the Trump Democrats back in?
RUTH MARCUS [WASHINGTON POST]: Whew, I think that the actual real-world risk seems to me to be whether we’re moving with just way too much rapidity when there is a little bit – a little bit factual development to figure out here. And I don’t want anybody to get too alarmed by what I’m saying. In other words, he first admitted or said that it was him –
MITCHELL: And apologized in a video.
MARCUS: And apologized. Then he came out with this other explanation. Is there any reason whatsoever to credit this other explanation? It has not emerged yet. But – so maybe there is some risk in being precipitous.
But there does not seem, to me, to be a risk, as with other things, in a blowback because nobody, Republican, Democrat, any color, any party could look at this picture on a yearbook page and say it is appropriate. It is not appropriate. It’s offensive. It’s repulsive. Nobody has an entitlement, as Senator Booker said, to be governor of Virginia, who had that page. He wouldn’t have been elected if we had known about it at the time.
So I do not see the risk of blowback. I see a little risk of not letting the process play itself out to make sure we’re absolutely being fair to the Governor, that’s the only risk I see.
(...)
