Following Monday evening’s opening round of negotiations between Senate Republicans and President Biden over a new COVID relief bill, on Tuesday, MSNBC anchors were already rejecting the attempted bipartisanship as a “waste of time” and repeatedly urged Democrats to not “even bother” dealing with the GOP.
“So there’s some new movement on President Biden’s nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Senator Bernie Sanders getting ready, signaling that Democrats are willing to go it alone,” host Hallie Jackson touted in the 10 a.m. ET hour. That declaration was followed by correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell hyping support for the socialist lawmaker’s partisan approach:
And Sanders has the support of most Democrats in the Senate, who say that something needs to be done, something big, something bold, and something needs to be done now. And they are reluctant, most Democrats anyway, to wait around trying to negotiate with Republicans who have indicated that they don’t want something as big and as bold.
Near the end of the show, Jackson pressed left-wing Oregon Senator Ron Wyden on why Democrats were even talking to Republicans about the legislation: “...do you think it’s a waste of time for President Biden to meet with Republicans about a smaller relief bill?”
In the 11:00 a.m. ET hour, Jackson’s fellow anchor Craig Melvin turned to Democratic Party operative Jim Messina and worried: “How worth is it for him to keep trying to negotiate with these moderate Republicans?...Why even bother? Why negotiate and why not just do it the way Senator Sanders has suggested doing?”
Dismissing all of Biden’s inauguration rhetoric about reaching across the aisle to get things done, Messina ranted: “I think you’re going to see them have to go it alone here because the Republicans are just in fantasy land if they think Joe Biden is going to come down to $600 billion.”
Interviewing Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy later in the hour, Melvin again implored Democrats to immediately abandon the negotiations with Republicans – which had just started – and called for them to employ the same tactics to shove through numerous radical agenda items:
I mean, is it time for Democrats to just go it alone, on their own, if Republicans don’t come on board? And I’m not just talking about COVID relief. I’m talking about immigration, I’m talking about gun law reform, which we’re gonna talk about in just a moment. But this idea that Democrats should, you know, engage in the Kumbaya and come to the table when your Republican counterparts didn’t seem as willing just a few months ago.
Like Messina did earlier, Murphy rewarded a good-faith Republican effort to strike a deal on COVID relief by attacking the GOP:
It’s really up to Republicans as to whether they join us or not. Listen, Joe Biden campaigned on uniting this country and he’s succeeded. He’s put together an agenda that does unite the country. I don’t know that it’s his fault that there’s a recalcitrant group of Republican elected officials in Washington that refuse to get behind things that everybody in the country wants.
How dare those “recalcitrant” Republicans sit down for a cordial two-hour meeting with the President and talk about how “productive” it was after.
It’s amazing how only hours after negotiations began, the left-wing press are demanding that Democrats walk away from the table and tell Republicans to pound sand. The media truly are the base of the Democratic Party.
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Here are transcripts of the February 2 coverage:
MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson
10:15 AM ET
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HALLIE JACKSON: So there’s some new movement on President Biden’s nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Senator Bernie Sanders getting ready, signaling that Democrats are willing to go it alone. He’s about ready to introduce a bill that would speed up passage of this thing in the Senate, that’s happening today. Let me bring in NBC’s Leigh Ann Caldwell, who is on Capitol Hill, Peter Alexander is at the White House. Leigh Ann, let me start with you. Talk to us about what Senator Sanders is trying to get the ball rolling on basically.
LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: Well, Hallie, first this meeting last night with Republicans, Senator Susan Collins called it excellent. She indicated that perhaps there are some areas that they could compromise, perhaps on this – maybe not the size of the stimulus check, but perhaps who receives the stimulus check. You know, these are Biden’s people, lawmakers, who really enjoyed talking to these senators, these senators enjoyed talking with them. But the big question is, is there room for compromise as they move forward because they’re still extremely far apart? Including on this issue of state and local funding where the Biden administration and Democrats want $300 billion, which is something that Republicans haven’t even mentioned in their proposal. So Bernie Sanders, as you mentioned, is prepared, as head of the Budget Committee, to move forward on this process that would only need a simple majority to pass this COVID relief bill in the Senate. Let’s take a listen to how he lays it out on Chris Hayes last night.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS [I-VT]: Now is not the time to count pennies. Now is the time to address these monumental crises and I think what the President is proposing is a very good start in doing that.
CALDWELL: And Sanders has the support of most Democrats in the Senate, who say that something needs to be done, something big, something bold, and something needs to be done now. And they are reluctant, most Democrats anyway, to wait around trying to negotiate with Republicans who have indicated that they don’t want something as big and as bold.
(...)
10:51 AM ET
JACKSON: Let’s start with the politics around these relief bill negotiations. Seems like there’s a couple of main schools of thoughts here, right? One that says unity between parties is really important, let’s focus on that. The other that says, listen, Democrats made campaign promises, President Biden made campaign promises on COVID relief. Is that how you see the choice for Democrats here?
SEN. RON WYDEN [D-OR]: Hallie, we have done everything but somersault to try to get the Republicans to support a real package that meets the need. We have with so much economic hurt in our country. We have to get moving on these serious parts of our package. It's a question of getting schools open, dealing with folks who can’t pay the rent. We’ve got another unemployment cliff coming up on March 14th. I think it would be cruel to just say, “Well, maybe we’ll have a few more months of unemployment and then we’ll have another arbitrary cliff where folks won’t be able to pay the rent and afford groceries.”
JACKSON: So then, given that, do you think it’s a waste of time for President Biden to meet with Republicans about a smaller relief bill?
(...)
MSNBC Live With Craig Melvin11:11 AM ET
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CRAIG MELVIN: To your point, Jim, I mean, you’re the president and this is your first big swing. How worth is it for him to keep trying to negotiate with these moderate Republicans? Again, if you’re proposing $1.9 trillion and they’re proposing roughly $600 billion, that’s a lot of sunlight between the two. They’re not 100 billion apart, or 200 billion, but they’re a trillion dollars apart. Why even bother? Why negotiate and why not just do it the way Senator Sanders has suggested doing?
JIM MESSINA: Well, look, when we had tough bills, when we had the economic stimulus act of 2009, when we had ObamaCare, we sent Joe Biden up to the hill to make the deal because that’s what he’s good at. He’s the best I’ve ever seen at it. And so he’s going to do everything he can. But to your point, they are just drastically different and it’s so different that, you know, he may get to a point where he says, “Look, I want to work with you, there’s other ways to work with you, you have lots of bills coming, but on this one, I’m going to go it alone because it is the most important thing and I’ve just got to get it done.” But because he’s Joe Biden, he’s going to bend over backwards and try and he’ll have some more discussions, but they are really far apart and I sort of agree with Garrett [Haake], you know, I think you’re going to see them have to go it alone here because the Republicans are just in fantasy land if they think Joe Biden is going to come down to $600 billion.
(...)
11:51 AM ET
MELVIN: You tweeted something on Sunday that caught my attention. You tweeted that when Republicans had the edge in the Senate, they showed little effort to negotiate with Democrats. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said back in September, “elections have consequences.” I remember Senator Lindsey Graham saying that years ago, that elections have consequences. I mean, is it time for Democrats to just go it alone, on their own, if Republicans don’t come on board? And I’m not just talking about COVID relief. I’m talking about immigration, I’m talking about gun law reform, which we’re gonna talk about in just a moment. But this idea that Democrats should, you know, engage in the Kumbaya and come to the table when your Republican counterparts didn’t seem as willing just a few months ago.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY [D-CT]: It’s important to remember that bipartisanship is not an end, right. It should be a means toward an end. And the end that we should be seeking is to rescue this country from a devastating pandemic and a crippling economic recession. And so my perspective is let’s just do stuff that’s really popular, right? It’s really popular to give people $2,000 checks. It’s really popular to increase the minimum wage. It’s really popular to enact universal background checks. I mean, as long as we’re doing things that enjoy broad bipartisan support in the American public and we have the – a process available to us to get it done with 50 votes in the Senate, then let’s do it. It’s really up to Republicans as to whether they join us or not. Listen, Joe Biden campaigned on uniting this country and he’s succeeded. He’s put together an agenda that does unite the country. I don’t know that it’s his fault that there’s a recalcitrant group of Republican elected officials in Washington that refuse to get behind things that everybody in the country wants.
(...)
