Mormon Congressman Raul Labrador (R-Id.) scolded David Gregory on Sunday for his network's horrible treatment of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's faith.
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Labrador specifically named MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell as one of the offenders (video follows with transcript and commentary):
DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Congressman Labrador, let me get you into this. We-- we are on the precipice of-- of an historic moment-- for Mormons in this country. And that is that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. And somebody was-- you know, very significant role in the church looks like he's going to become the republican nominee.
And-- Congress Cleaver talked about the need to take religion off the ballot. But here you had Orrin Hatch from Utah-- Senator Utah-- saying that the Obama administration-- the campaign is gonna throw the Mormon Church at Mitt Romney and make this an issue. Do you agree with that and how would he do that?
CONGRESSMAN RAUL LABRADOR (R-IDAHO): I think the media is gonna do that-- for-- for the Obama campaign. But-- let's talk about your eternal question real quick. There is an attack on religious freedom at this point. And-- and if you look at what the Obama administration did with the contraception issue, they first set up a rule that-- that was contrary to some religions.
Then they decided that they were gonna reform-- they were gonna change that rule. And then when they changed that rule they really didn't change the rule. They actually just said that they were gonna change the rule and they wanted to have this conversation about contraceptives which nobody was talking about at the time. If you remember, the first time they talked about contraceptives which was George Stephanopoulos in one of the debates. He's the one who brought it up.
But going back to your question about Mormonism th-- everyone in-- in politics is gonna have some sort of role-- i-- is gonna be influenced by their faith whether it's Emanuel by his faith, whether it's me by my faith. And I think we can't talk about having-- s-- politics void of any religious faith because then what you're saying is you have-- you're asking people to not be who they are.
GREGORY: But I'm asking you about this very specific charge. You have the-- senior Senator from Utah saying that the Mormon Church is gonna be thrown at the republican nominee who is a Mormon. In what way? And you just said you think the media'll do it. I mean, let's talk--
(OVERTALK)
GREGORY: --about what-- what you mean.
LABRADOR: --you-- you look at your own network. MSNBC, you have Lawrence O'Donnell, it's-- just saying some really nasty things about the Mormon religion, about the founding-- of-- of our religion. That it was based on-- on some guy just waking up some morning and deciding that he-- that he wanted-- that he had-- an extramarital affair and that-- that-- that's how the r-- religion was founded.
There-- there's some really nasty things already being said by-- by your own network, by NBC. There's-- there's many other people that are gonna be talking about these things. And tie what we need to realize is that everybody's faith origins are-- are peculiar i-- if you look at any one of-- of-- of us.
And we need to realize that what you need to look at is the man-- the man, Mitt Romney. I haven't endorsed Mitt Romney. But it clearly looks like he's gonna be the nominee-- for-- for the republican party. We need to look at his life and the things that he has done. And he's had-- a very, very good life.
For those that missed it, Labrador was referring to the following statement by O'Donnell on MSNBC's The Last Word Tuesday:
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC ANCHOR: Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it. Forty-eight wives later, Joseph Smith's lifestyle was completely sanctified in the religion he invented to go with it. Which Mitt Romney says he believes.
As such, it was quite refreshing to see Labrador call Gregory out for such nonsense.
If NBC wants to ever be considered as a serious news organization again, it must cut its ties with this joke of a network just as Bernie Goldberg said Monday.
Bravo, Congressman! Bravo!
