Given that Barack Obama won the PolitiFact “lie of the year” for his famous falsehood that “If you like your doctor, you can keep it,” it seems he wouldn’t be the person for journalists to tout on GOP health care fabrications. Apparently, MSNBC didn’t get the memo as host Ali Velshi on Monday eagerly hyped the President “calling out Republican lies.”
As a set up to a clip of an Obama speech decrying Republicans “shamelessly lying,” Velshi teased, “Coming up, untruths floating around about protecting health care coverage for patients with preexisting conditions. This is important. Something former President Obama was very outspoken about in a campaign event in Wisconsin.”
Velshi played another clip of the Democrat president and cheered, “That's President Obama calling out the Republican lies.” Talking to ObamaCare planner Kathleen Sebelius, the journalist admitted he had no idea how to cover this: “I don't know as a journalist how to approach this because it is just abject dishonesty.”
At NO time did Velshi mention the fact that PolitiFact awarded Barack Obama the 2013 “lie of the year." The fact checking website decried Obama’s untruths:
Obama’s ideas on health care were first offered as general outlines then grew into specific legislation over the course of his presidency. Yet Obama never adjusted his rhetoric to give people a more accurate sense of the law’s real-world repercussions, even as fact-checkers flagged his statements as exaggerated at best.
Instead, he fought back against inaccurate attacks with his own oversimplifications, which he repeated even as it became clear his promise was too sweeping.
The debate about the health care law rages on, but friends and foes of Obamacare have found one slice of common ground: The president’s "you can keep it" claim has been a real hit to his credibility.
Given Obama’s complete lack of credibility on this issue, Velshi should have at the very least mentioned the ex-President’s lie. I reached out to Velshi on Twitter. He claimed this point was too off topic to mention:
A transcript is below:
MSNBC Live
10/29/18
3:35pm ETALI VELSHI: Coming up, untruths floating around about protecting health care coverage for patients with preexisting conditions. This is important. Something former President Obama was very outspoken about in a campaign event in Wisconsin.
BARACK OBAMA: What we have not seen before in our public life — is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying. Just making stuff up.
...
3:32pm ET
[Clip of Obama talking about GOP and health care.]
VELSHI: That's President Obama calling out the Republican lies. You may have noticed some Republican candidates trying to rewrite history and ignoring the last nine years or so of their staunch opposition to ObamaCare. They're now saying they're in favor of protecting people with preexisting conditions. That could effect an estimated 52 million people. Here's the thing. It's not a flip-flop, because those same Republicans are supporting lawsuits against ObamaCare. 20 states with conservative leadership are suing the U.S. Government over ObamaCare.
If the law is found to be unconstitutional as they argue, it would likely eliminate the requirement that insurance companies cover people with preexisting conditions. I want you all to think about what life was like before ObamaCare. For a lot of Americans if you had a preexisting conditions. I want you all to think back to what life was like before ObamaCare. If you’re an employed American at a major corporation like I am, maybe you didn’t have to worry about it because you got great insurance and you still do. But for a lot of other Americans if you had a preexisting condition, it was game over for you. I want to talk now with a woman who helped create the law that protects people with preexisting conditions. Kathleen Sebelius is the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Obama. She helped not only with the creation of the Affordable Care Act, but with the implementation of it. She's also the former governor of Kansas. Kathleen, good to see you again. I don't know as a journalist how to approach this. Because It is just abject dishonesty.
...
VELSHI: Donald Trump tweeted about this. He said all Republicans support people with preexisting conditions and if they don't, they will after I speak to them. I am in total support. Also Democrats will destroy your Medicare and I'll keep it healthy and well. Republicans will protect people with preexisting conditions. Democrats will not. Vote Republican.” A big part of ObamaCare was the extending of coverage for preexisting conditions and a number of other things that insurance companies wouldn't do sold privately. And a very big part of it was the expansion of Medicare. Again, I don't know —
KATHLEEN: SEBELIUS: Medicaid.
VELSHI: Medicaid. I’m sorry. I’m not sure how to correct this sort of stuff. I guess Republicans are figuring out how to read polls that health care continues is the most pressing issue for many Americans, most Americans.
...
VELSHI: Unbelievable. Thank you for being with me to speak the truth about it. Former health and human services secretary.
