Worst Sesame Street Ever: MSNBC Touts ‘ABCs of Impeachment’

October 30th, 2019 4:18 PM

In what looked more like a dystopian episode of Sesame Street than serious news coverage, during the 1:00 p.m. ET hour on Wednesday, MSNBC hyped Democrats following the “ABCs of impeachment” to go after President Trump. Liberal talking points were followed to letter, literally, as the segment detailed all of Trump’s alleged impeachable offenses.

“NBC News confirms that House Democrats are taking a closer look at the ABCs of impeachment to make their case against President Trump,” co-host Ali Velshi eagerly announced. He then explained: “And if you don’t know about the ABCs of impeachment, here they are: A: Abusive of power, B: Betrayal, C: Corruption.”

 

 

Fellow co-host Stephanie Ruhle turned to correspondent Heidi Przybyla to discuss the supposedly “really important piece” that “definitely helps you understand it a whole lot more.” She asked the reporter to “Walk us through these ABCs.”

Przybyla claimed that House Democrats were “going to hue this to what the founders laid out as the conditions for impeachment, these are the ABCs.” She then went down the list, teaching liberal viewers the anti-Trump alphabet:

A, abuse of power, that would be relative to the President’s attempts to use his office, abuse his office for his own personal gain in order to gain his dirt on the Bidens. B is for betrayal, betrayal of the country and betrayal of our national security interests in terms of pushing an ally into a very precarious situation with Ukraine and not letting them fully defend themselves if we’re gonna withhold aid. And C is for corruption, and that is corrupting our electoral process by encouraging openly, in cluding on camera, in front of all of us, foreign powers to get involved and meddle in our election process.

It almost sounded like she was reciting an acrostic poem in which every line was an attack.

In response, Ruhle quipped: “Meanwhile, the President is employing the Glengarry Glen Ross ABC of ‘Always Be Closing’ this inquiry down.”

Velshi complained that Trump and congressional Republicans were “trying to paint a picture of what they call a witch hunt or a procedural effort to get rid of the President and largely ignoring the content of the issues, the ABC.” He wondered: “How do Democrats hope that this message, they’re message, gets out to the American public?”

Przybyla reassured him: “Well, when this goes to a public portion, what they’re going to do is take the best aspects of the testimony that they’ve heard from all of these officials and take those public.”

The entire segment amounted to nothing more than repeating the impeachment narrative that Democrats wanted and even using their slogans.

Just last week, MSNBC brought on Przybyla to similarly tout the latest impeachment political strategy being pursued by liberal lawmakers.

Help fight against the liberal media's impeachment crusade

Here is a transcript of the October 30 exchange:

1:09 PM ET

(...)

ALI VELSHI: Alright, in about two hours, the House Rules Committee is expected to vote on it’s resolution which details the next steps in the impeachment inquiry this as NBC News confirms that House Democrats are taking a closer look at the ABCs of impeachment to make their case against President Trump. And if you don’t know about the ABCs of impeachment, here they are: A: Abusive of power, B: Betrayal, C: Corruption.

STEPHANIE RUHLE: Joining us now on Capitol Hill, the reporter who broke this really important piece, definitely helps you understand it a whole lot more, our friend Heidi Przybyla. Walk us through these ABCs.

HEIDI PRZYBYLA: Alright, Steph, so when I spoke with Democrats close to this investigation last night, they said that we already have so much information that’s in the public sphere, including five witnesses now saying that there was a quid pro quo, including the President’s acting chief of staff, that you can start to talk about how they’re going to hue this to what the founders laid out as the conditions for impeachment, these are the ABCs.

A, abuse of power, that would be relative to the President’s attempts to use his office, abuse his office for his own personal gain in order to gain his dirt on the Bidens. B is for betrayal, betrayal of the country and betrayal of our national security interests in terms of pushing an ally into a very precarious situation with Ukraine and not letting them fully defend themselves if we’re gonna withhold aid. And C is for corruption, and that is corrupting our electoral process by encouraging openly, including on camera, in front of all of us, foreign powers to get involved and meddle in our election process.

RUHLE: Meanwhile, the President is employing the Glengarry Glen Ross ABC of always be closing this inquiry down. That was clever, you got that?  

VELSHI: That was – I got that. I got that. Heidi, to Stephanie’s point just before this conversation, the White House and its defenders in Congress, including Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and others, continued to be highly focused on process questions, most of which will sort themselves out, because if you don’t like private testimony, the public testimony will come shortly hereafter. The issue is that they are trying to paint a picture of what they call a witch hunt or a procedural effort to get rid of the President and largely ignoring the content of the issues, the ABC. How do Democrats hope that this message, they’re message, gets out to the American public?

PRZYBYLA: Well, when this goes to a public portion, what they’re going to do is take the best aspects of the testimony that they’ve heard from all of these officials and take those public.  

(...)