Seeking to wring every possible ounce of political advantage from President Trump's recent tweets about The Squad, Nicolle Wallace has suggested that Trump would have "blood on his hands" if one of them were to be attacked.
On her MSNBC show Tuesday afternoon, Wallace interviewed Rep. Karen Bass, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and began by asking whether Trump's words posed a "danger." When Bass said she did and that she was "seriously worried about the lives" of the Squad members, Wallace then took things an ugly step further, saying:
"I just want to get you on the record and make sure that I understand exactly what you're saying . . . Do you believe he'd have blood on his hands if there were a racially-inspired attack in this country?"
Bass was only too happy to agree: "I absolutely believe that. Yes!!"
Note that Wallace was floating a hypothetical. But there was nothing hypothetical about the attack by an Antifa thug on Andy Ngo, an Asian-American conservative journalist.
Nor was it hypothetical when another Antifa member attacked a DHS detention center after putting out a manifesto echoing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with its mentions of "concentration camps," and "fascism."
And then there was the very real attack on the Republican congressional softball team that almost killed Republican Whip Steve Scalise. James Hodgkinson's Facebook page listed him as a Rachel Maddow fan. Did anyone blame the shooting on Maddow?
Did Wallace accuse any Dem politician of having "blood on his hands" in regard to any of those non-hypothetical attacks? Don't think so.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Deadline White House
7/16/19
4:05 pm EDTNICOLLE WALLACE: Congresswoman, do you believe there's any danger in the constant stream of upping the ante that seems to come from this White House and this President. His words have a long tail. They're echoed in conservative media outlets. He had conservative social media provocateurs at the White House and celebrated what are usually false attacks, one of them had put out a false attack against Senator Kamala Harris. Are you concerned that this debate is getting out of control?
KAREN BASS: Well, I absolutely am. And one of them had also put out a really anti-Semitic political cartoon as well, and he was welcomed into the White House. I will tell you that I am seriously worried about the lives of our four colleagues, two of which are the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. But these four women go through death threats every single day. They don’t talk about it very often. I’m very worried that one of them might be injured if not killed. And you remember, when the guy went in and shot up the synagogue, remember who he cited. He said that the President said that they were getting funding to encourage Central Americans to come over to the United States.
I believe that his racist, hateful rhetoric absolutely has consequences. All he needs to do is trigger somebody who is mentally unstable, or who is a bigger racist than he is, and somebody else is going to get hurt. I believe people have already been hurt because of his racist rhetoric.
WALLACE: Congresswoman, I just want to get you on the record and make sure that I understand exactly what you're saying. Do you believe that other than endangering the lives of those four congresswomen that he targeted in those racist tweets, do you believe he's putting, do you believe he'd have blood on his hands if there were a racially-inspired attack in this country.
BASS: I absolutely believe that. Yes!!
