All that was missing was James Taylor's "You've Got a Friend" playing gently in the background . . .
Reacting to Rep. Ilhan Omar's description of 9/11 as "some people did something," Joe Scarborough, on today's Morning Joe, said that it's "so important for her to succeed."
With considerable trepidation, Mike Barnicle dared broach the subject of Omar's outrageous statement. "Yesterday, there was an event that took place in Washington, a-n-n-n-n-d, I'm going to raise it." He did summon up the courage to describe Omar's statement as a "distortion of . . . reality." He was upset that Democratic presidential candidates refused to condhem it.
That led to a solicitous Scarborough saying that he saw that Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R.-Texas) engaged Omar on Twitter, and scolded he should have just talked to her across the aisle in the Capitol:
"It's so important, I think personally, for her to succeed. Right? She's -- there have been some missteps. But there's something much bigger here, like, going on. We don't want one of our first Muslim, women, Americans, to, to, to, to, blow up politically like this."
"Blow up"? Not the most felicitous phrase when discussing 9/11.
At its core, Scarborough's wish for Omar to succeed is deeply patronizing. Omar is an American citizen. She is an elected Member of Congress. Does Scarborough really expect Crenshaw to, shall we say, Ameri-splain to Omar why obfuscating the reality of 9/11 would be "offensive to some people?" If Omar doesn't understand that by now, she richly deserves to fail.
Scarborough described Omar as having committed "some missteps." Such an understanding guy, that Joe! Saying that Israel had "hypnotized" the world and committed "evil" wasn't a "misstep." Claiming "it's all about the Benjamins," i.e. that Jewish money is corrupting US policy toward Israel, wasn't a "misstep." Omar didn't misstate her beliefs: she revealed them.
Note: Scarborough's fervent wish that Omar succeed has echoes of Chris Matthews, just after the 2008 election, declaring that "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new [Obama] presidency work." Ironically, it was Scarborough who challenged Matthews, asking whether it was really Matthews' job, as a "journalist," to do that. Eleven years later, Scarborough has apparently determined that it is indeed the job of liberals in the media to prop up liberal politicians.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
4/11/19
6:30 am EDT
MIKE BARNICLE: Yesterday, there was an event that took place in Washington, a-n-n-n-d, I'm going to raise it, but Representative Ilhan Omar referred to September 11th as some people doing some things. Which is just, simply, a distortion of the reality that not only people in New York have lived through, but what happened to the United States afterward. Not one of the candidates spoke out about that, when asked. Seveal of them had no comment. I mean: come on. Get real! Get real, as you just said. Get real!
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, Dan Crenshaw did a great job reaching out to SNL.
WILLIE GEIST: Pete Davidson.
SCARBOROUGH: Pete Davidson. And he was tweeting about this yesterday. I didn't quite understand that, because he works with her. Walk across the aisle, and just sit down.
It's so important, I think personally, for her to succeed, right? There have been some missteps. But there's something much bigger here, like going on. We don't want one of our first Muslim, women, Americans to, to, to, to blow up politically like this. And I just wish he'd walk across the aisle and go, hey, let me tell you, this is why this is going to be offensive to some people and I understand how you feel about Israel but just can we just talk regularly about this?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And then maybe he can tweet, we just had a talk and there's hope that this conversation will get us together. Doesn't even have to say we talked and we -- there's just a different way of -- why tweet?
SCARBOROUGH: And, by the way --
BRZEZINSKI: We're right there. It would be like me tweeting at you right now, sitting right here.
SCARBOROUGH: He can talk to her about this. And they can have a dialogue back and forth.
BRZEZINSKI: That's why they're in Washington together. They're supposed to work together.
WILLIE GEIST: People tweet because it's not for the other person: it's for the people watching. But Congressman Crenshaw is a good guy, and a decent guy --
BRZEZINSKI: -- a really good guy.
GEIST: -- and maybe he will do that today and go talk to her. I hope he will.
