On her 12:00 p.m. ET hour show on Thursday, MSNBC Andrea Mitchell desperately attempted to make the case for Washington D.C. statehood in order to help her friends in the Democratic Party gain two additional U.S. senators and possibly a permanent advantage in the congressional chamber. Lefty historian Jon Meacham then joined her in advocating the radical agenda and tossing aside the Constitution.
“The House is going to vote tomorrow on whether Washington, D.C. should become the 51st state....This, as murals supporting statehood are popping up all over the city,” Mitchell gushed as she introduced her propaganda piece. Trying to justify the nakedly partisan push, Mitchell shamefully compared recent efforts to clear D.C. protesters away from the White House to the bloodiest battle of the Iraq war:
It’s the city where federal forces cleared protesters across from the White House with chemical gas so the president could cross the park to a photo op, while a military helicopter swooped down over city streets to chase urban demonstrators. A combat zone maneuver more suitable for Fallujah than downtown D.C. The city’s mayor could not stop any of that, or troops being stationed at sacred monuments, because unlike 50 states and the U.S. territories, Washington is the only jurisdiction where the National Guard answers to the president instead of to a governor.
Eighty-two American soldiers gave their lives during the Battle of Fallujah and hundreds were gravely wounded. Now, Mitchell uses that example of sacrifice as a punch line to score cheap political points and kiss up to the far left.
A clip ran of Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser explaining the real reason for statehood: “To have two senators that vote for us and speak for us, and a voting representative in Congress. But we also need it to make sure that our borders aren’t breached by the federal government.”
Mitchell interviewed non-voting D.C. Democratic Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and sympathized: “You’ve been in Congress for 17 terms. What does it feel like to never be able to vote on final passage for one of your bills?” Norton replied: “It feels like my city is not fully respected, despite paying the highest federal income taxes per capita in the United States.”
The anchor forgot to mention that her and Norton were nearly attacked during that interview by one of the radical leftist protesters roving the streets of D.C.
As footage played on screen of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh being sworn in to the high court in 2018, Mitchell bitterly complained: “With no senator, D.C. residents have no say on confirming Supreme Court justices or cabinet members or other officials. Congress hasn’t even debated statehood since 1993, when it lost.”
Following her supposed “news report,” Mitchell turned to Meacham because she “really needed” his “perspective on this.” Shockingly, he agreed with every word she said:
Yeah, it’s ten miles square, is phrase in the Constitution. The original thinking was that the federal government needed a sovereign space. It was about independence, really.... the federal government would therefore be totally sovereign. I think we’ve outrun that logic a long way back. And I doubt this passes, but the statistics you marshaled there, as well as the intellectual argument from Ms. Norton, is, to me, pretty compelling.
Moments later, he declared that granting D.C. statehood was a matter of “justice and equality, there’s no question.”
Wrong: It’s about raw political power, plain and simple. There are no grand ideals being considered here, the Democrats and their liberal media cohorts just want two more votes to control the Senate.
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Here is a transcript of the June 25 segment:
12:39 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: The House is going to vote tomorrow on whether Washington, D.C. should become the 51st state. The measure has 226 House co-sponsors, that’s more than enough for it to pass. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it will not even come up for a vote in the Senate. The White House says the president would veto it if it did, if it ever reached his desk. This, as murals supporting statehood are popping up all over the city.
It’s the city where federal forces cleared protesters across from the White House with chemical gas so the president could cross the park to a photo op, while a military helicopter swooped down over city streets to chase urban demonstrators. A combat zone maneuver more suitable for Fallujah than downtown D.C. The city’s mayor could not stop any of that, or troops being stationed at sacred monuments, because unlike 50 states and the U.S. territories, Washington is the only jurisdiction where the National Guard answers to the president instead of to a governor.
MURIEL BOWSER: To have two senators that vote for us and speak for us, and a voting representative in Congress. But we also need it to make sure that our borders aren’t breached by the federal government.
MITCHELL: The capital city has 702,000 residents, more than Vermont or Wyoming. And people here pay more total federal taxes than 22 states. What the District does not have is a vote in Congress. Not since a law passed in 1801, which Thomas Jefferson was president. You’ve been in Congress for 17 terms. What does it feel like to never be able to vote on final passage for one of your bills?
REP. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON [D-DC]: It feels like my city is not fully respected, despite paying the highest federal income taxes per capita in the United States.
MITCHELL: Eleanor Holmes Norton was born in D.C. 83 years ago. The great granddaughter of Richard Holmes, who escaped from a Virginia slave master to find work in the nation’s capital.
NORTON: Richard Holmes made it to freedom but he did not make it to equality, nor have those in his lineage yet made it to equality. That’s why we need statehood, at least personally, why I need statehood.
MITCHELL: With no senator, D.C. residents have no say on confirming Supreme Court justices or cabinet members or other officials. Congress hasn’t even debated statehood since 1993, when it lost.
REP. NANCY PELOSI [D-CA, HOUSE SPEAKER]: This deprivation of statehood is unjust.
MITCHELL: Despite strong support now in the House, most Senate Republicans are still opposed.
SEN. MIKE BRAUN [R-IN]: I don’t think you’re going to have many in the Republican conference for that.
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS [R-SD]: I think our founding fathers were correct in the first place.
MITCHELL: Still, Friday’s debate will give Washington a chance to protest against taxation without representation, a principle that was supposed to be settled by those founders more than 200 years ago.
Well, joining me now is Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and biographer Jon Meacham, who’s the author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, among so many other books, great books. Jon, thank you very much for joining us. Really needed your perspective on this. As you know better than anyone, the capital city was created by taking land from Virginia and Maryland in 1801 and that’s the last time we had any representation in Congress.
JON MEACHAM: Yeah, it’s ten miles square, is phrase in the Constitution. The original thinking was that the federal government needed a sovereign space. It was about independence, really. That’s the irony of this. They didn’t want to be in Pennsylvania, with all respect to you, or New York, because the governors of New York or Pennsylvania might try to force them to do things. And so the idea was that it would be this kind of like Krypton, the planet, and the federal government would therefore be totally sovereign. I think we’ve outrun that logic a long way back. And I doubt this passes, but the statistics you marshaled there, as well as the intellectual argument from Ms. Norton, is, to me, pretty compelling.
MITCHELL: I mean, what really brought this fore, for a lot of us here, was what happened when the president was threatening to use the Insurrection Act of 1807 and only Washington would not have been unable to object because every other state and territory have governors who could say “No, thank you.” And then only in a dire circumstance could the president supersede that. But in this case, the mayor objected to what was happening in Lafayette Park and the surrounding areas, and to no avail, because she doesn’t even control the National Guard here.
MEACHAM: Yeah. No, it’s a question of sovereignty. And I think what Americans around the country have to decide is how would they feel if their governor – a, they don’t really have one – but if their governors and mayors weren’t able to exercise basic powers. And so I think the question, obviously creating what would be two Democratic seats in the Senate, is the political reality that will make this incredibly difficult.
MITCHELL: Of course.
MEACHAM: But as a matter of prima facie justice and equality, there’s no question.
(...)
