If this doesn't constitute an in-kind campaign contribution, what in the heck would?
Today's Morning Joe devoted an 11-minute segment to promoting the candidacy of Amy McGrath, a Democrat who has announced her candidacy to run for the US Senate seat from Kentucky against Mitch McConnell.
Even before McGrath appeared, Morning Joe ran the entirety of her minute-long announcement ad. And in ending the interminable segment, the panel repeatedly pushed people to McGrath's website, suggesting that they donate.
Mike Barnicle kicked off the donation push off by saying "people who saw that commercial are going to want to donate to you. What's your website?"
And Joe Scarborough closed the segment by pushing the website so many times, the rest of the crew started laughing:
"When Mitch McConnell comes on our show, we will also mention his website. But just for the record, her website again: amymcgrath.com. That's amymcgrath.com. If you are outside of Kentucky, amymcgrath.com."
Scarborough, of course, knows there's a snowball's chance in hell of McConnell appearing on Morning Joe. Mika Brzezinski made that obvious as she fought to contain a laugh as Scarborough said they'd mention Mitch's website when he came on the show.
McGrath's platform has to be the most bizarre that any Democrat in this cycle will adopt. She blamed McConnell for blocking President Trump's agenda. She apparently has the chutzpah to claim that she would be more pro-Trump than Mitch! Funny, considering that should the Dems win back the Senate majority, her first vote would be to make Chuck Schumer Majority Leader!
In the course of her interview, McGrath described herself as a "moderate." Riiight.
Check out the video that the McConnell campaign has put out, in which McGrath, in her own voice, says, "I am further left, I am more progressive, than anybody in the state of Kentucky." She is also seen calling the wall "stupid," and, speaking of illegal immigrants, says, "let's bring 'em in."
She also expresses support for universal health care, saying "single-payer is the way to go." She also described herself as "100% pro-choice," and declined to say that a woman on the way to the hospital to give birth shouldn't have the right to an abortion. And for good measure, McGrath analogizes the election of President Trump to 9-11!
Some moderate!
McGrath was criticized for not mentioning "Kentucky" in her three-minute announcement video (unless you count the graphics on screen). She obviously decided to make up for that omission in spades this morning, mentioning "Kentucky" or "Kentuckian" no fewer than 15 times!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/9/19
6:50 am EDTWILLIE GEIST: Amy, it’s Willie Geist. Congratulations on getting into the race. Welcome to the show, it's good to have you here this morning. There have been many people over the years who have come at Mitch McConnell, who believe they — he or she — were the candidate that were going to finally take him out politically. And he has persevered. He’s been a resilient political candidateand a politician in Washington through the years. Why do you believe this time is different?
AMY MCGRATH: Well, and you're absolutely right to say he's very formidable, and he's been around 34 years. I think this is this is different. It's a different race because, you know, Kentucky voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, and you can say Kentucky is a very red state. But it’s a very pro-Trump state. And if you think about why Kentuckians voted for Trump, they wanted to drain the swamp, and Trump said he was going to do that. Trump promised to bring back jobs, he promised to lower drug prices for so many Kentuckians, and that is very important. And you know what? Who stops them along the way? Who stops the President from doing these things? Well, Mitch McConnell. And I think that that’s really important and that’s going to be, you know, my message, that the things that Kentuckians voted for Trump for are not being done. He’s not able to get it done because of Senator McConnell.
. . .
STEVE RATTNER: Hi, Amy, it's Steve Rattner. As you well know, on the national stage, the presidential hopefuls come in a variety of colors and flavors I would like to ask you how you’re going to position yourself on some of these issues, like Medicare for all. Like the Green New Deal, like free college tuition. How do you run on those issues in the state of Kentucky?
MCGRATH: Well, I think that, you know, when I watched the Democratic debates with my husband and my family and, you know, a lot of times, my husband is a registered Republican, and I’m a Democrat, but I was an independent for many years, and there were times when, you know, when my husband and I looked at each other during the debates and we were concerned that many of the candidates were pulling a little too far left from where we are. Because we’re both moderates.
. . .
MIKE BARNICLE: So Amy, basically, you’re going to go across your state for the next several months talking about a big con that’s been enforced upon the people of Kentucky and other places. Now, we all sat here and watched your rollout commercial, which is incredibly powerful. And one of the ways you can get people to vote, obviously, is based on emotion, before you even get to the con that they’re living under. So let’s cut to the chase. What’s your website? Because people who saw that commercial are going to want to donate to you. What’s your website?
MCGRATH: My website is AmyMcGrath.com. And you’re absolutely right to say it is about emotion. I’m not doing this because, like I said, I want to be some politican. I’m doing this because I care about our country and I care about Kentucky. And I feel like we need people of courage to step up. And we're going to need the entire nation in this fight for Kentucky.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: All right. Thank you so much, retired Marine lieutenant colonel Amy McGrath. We greatly appreciate it. And certainly, when Mitch McConnell comes on our show, we will also mention his website. But just for the record, her website again, [laughter from panel] AmyMcGrath.com.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Good luck.
SCARBOROUGH: That’s AmyMcGrath.com. If you are outside of Kentucky, AmyMcGrath.com.
BRZEZINSKI: All right.
SCARBOROUGH: And like I said, when Mitch comes on, we’ll do the same thing.
BRZEZINSKI: Sure.
