With still nothing definitively known about the identity of the Munich, Germany attacker or attackers early Friday night, MSNBC’s MTP Daily ushered the Brexit vote for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union into the conversation as an example of anti-refugee sentiment that, in their speculations, was behind the mall shooting in Germany.
NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel had already touted the fears about the rise of right-leaning governments in Europe (as if left-wing governments aren’t ever a concern) but he then invoked Brexit to the agreement of host Chuck Todd.
“Do you draw a straight line? I mean, do you draw a straight line from basically the Syrian refugee crisis to Brexit to what we are seeing in Germany and France,” Todd wondered.
Engel responded that he indeed could even though “the Brexit anger was actually about internal European migration and the people in the UK were famously angry at the Poles because they were taking the blue collar jobs, and there was anger that the British society already changed because of immigration, and then there was the fear, somewhat unrealistic, but there was this fear that now all the Syrians and Middle Easterners are coming.”
While the attack on innocent civilians in Germany could very well had been done by a neo-Nazi or someone not related to ISIS, but the idea that a well-determining vote by the British people to be able to make their own choices about the way their country is run from the borders to economic regulations could have triggered someone killing anyone is at least questionable and at worse irresponsible.
To borrow a phrase that NewsBusters contributing writer P.J. Gladnick often employs, here’s an exit question: Would the media be making such a huge deal about such attacks if they were carried out by a far-left or communist gunman?
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s MTP Daily on July 22 can be found below.
MSNBC’s MTP Daily
July 22, 2016
5:23 p.m. Eastern
RICHARD ENGEL: We don't know much about this attack. We don't know if it was a Neo-Nazi group, somebody who was angry with the Muslim presence in Germany, or if it was ISIS directed or inspired attack, but either way, it's two sides of the same coin. Two groups that are trying to play on this hatred, trying to play on the divisions in the country because Europe is going through such an unprecedented period of turmoil. It's also Brexit is part or related to this —
CHUCK TODD: Nah, Richard, I was just going to say, I mean —
ENGEL: Go ahead.
TODD: Do you draw a straight line? I mean, do you draw a straight line from basically the Syrian refugee crisis to Brexit to what we are seeing in Germany and France?
ENGEL: I think you can draw a straight line. A lot of the Brexit anger was actually about internal European migration and the people in the UK were famously angry at the Poles because they were taking the blue collar jobs, and there was anger that the British society already changed because of immigration, and then there was the fear, somewhat unrealistic, but there was this fear that now all the Syrians and Middle Easterners are coming. We’ve had the poles first, and now we have to what — what more is on its way? It’s fundamentally un-British, we’re losing our identity, and then people went for option, but I do think it's having a major impact and there's talk of other countries following suit and fences are going up, I mean —
TODD: It's interesting you say this, because I also ran into a group of international academics, and I remember talking to a German professor very recently and I was talking about our own economic anxiety, our middle class revolt taking place in this country and this person said to me you are describing Germany's middle class, that there is the same sort of anxiety in the German middle class, that good jobs disappeared, and some of them due to trade agreements, some of them due to globalizaton, but then immigration is playing a role as well and Germany's economy is basically where the top is doing well, but, again, the middle feels under served.
ENGEL: Well, I think when there's a feeling of anxiety real or perceived, it's obviously fodder for strong men. Not only right-wing strong men, but a lot of the strong men offering law and order and I think you are seeing that in this country and I think you’re seeing that in Europe, particularly eastern Europe. There already has been a rise of parties who say we will do the right thing. We will seal our borders. Viktor Orban of Hungary, his main campaign was build a wall across the border to keep the migrants out, so I do think it's a universal tendency when faced with fear, when faced with perceived lack of control, and I think there’s been more of a lack of control, more of a real lack of control in Europe, particularly with the migrant crisis than in this country where it's more of a perception of loss of control.
