Appearing as a guest on Wednesday’s Hardball, The Root political editor Jason Johnson told his fellow MSNBC panelists that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the biggest winner of 2016 because he succeeded where Mikhail Gorbachev and the late Fidel Castro couldn’t in “[taking] over the United States” via a “coup” through “Manchurian candidate” Donald Trump.
“Biggest winner? Vladimir Putin. He did it. He did it. He did what Gorbachev couldn't do, what Castro couldn't do. He basically took over the United States and got himself a Manchurian candidate and that is something no other Russian leader has been able to do,” Johnson explained.
Johnson quickly added that this “amazing coup” “will be in history books for the next 50 years” before fill-in host Joy Reid ruled that “[i]t’s amazing” Russia has emerged as a global leader “after we defeated them in the Cold War” (regardless of what Mitt Romney said in 2012, of course).
The writer then further exposed the left’s hypocrisy when it comes to celebrities dabbling in politics as he declared that rapper Kanye West was 2016's biggest loser due to his support of Trump and opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement:
Kanye West and I know this is supposed to be entirely political, but walk with me on this. He starts the year with The Life of Pablo. It seems like it's fine. But the problem is he exemplifies what happens when you try to mix pop culture and politics and make the wrong decisions. He came out against Black Lives Matter. He said that racism is bad and now he's allied himself with Trump, had to cancel concerts. People don’t respect him. People don’t like him. He may be the only person performing at the inauguration. This is a year that shows you: Keep your politics and your pop culture separate.
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Earlier in the show, USA Today senior political correspondent Heidi Przybyla seemed bent out of shape that conservatives and Republicans aren’t on board with the idea of social compacts in America and specifically ObamaCare.
“We have social compacts in this country and the way that they work is you have people who are either younger or healthier or both buying into the system in order to support those who are older and sicker. We see that with Social Security, to a certain extent with our tax dollars in Medicare,” Przybyla began.
As if most Americans are onboard with a glorified nanny state that they somehow have to sign up for, she complained that there will be “sicker people” in the U.S. if the GOP dismantle ObamaCare:
What the Republicans did was on philosophical grounds organization pose was having that personal — that individual mandate, so it made it hard to also fund. And so, if you take these parts away, I think it’s going to be very hard to kind of put back together a system that has broad coverage. What you’re going to get is you're going to have sicker people. Yes. Maybe you won't take away the pre existing conditions — you know, this and that. But those people are going to be in smaller pools where they're not healthier people and they'll be paying through the nose. They don’t realize it yet.
Later, Przybyla named her winner of 2016 as none other than outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama even though “I cannot imagine what an excruciating experience this must be for her right now” having the opposing party succeed her husband’s Democratic Party in the White House.
Referring to the GOP, Przybyla lamented that “they're going to try and roll back much of his agenda and the person who won is the person who accused him of not even being an American and yet, she’s having to kind of — and she's doing this in a graceful way.”
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on December 21:
MSNBC’s Hardball
December 21, 2016
7:44 p.m. EasternJOY REID: Can Republicans just get away with replacing with it something later?
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: I don't know that they can because this is not rocket science, okay? We have social compacts in this country and the way that they work is you have people who are either younger or healthier or both buying into the system in order to support those who are older and sicker. We see that with Social Security, to a certain extent with our tax dollars in Medicare. What the Republicans did was on philosophical grounds organization pose was having that personal — that individual mandate, so it made it hard to also fund. And so, if you take these parts away, I think it’s going to be very hard to kind of put back together a system that has broad coverage. What you’re going to get is you're going to have sicker people. Yes. Maybe you won't take away the pre existing conditions — you know, this and that. But those people are going to be in smaller pools where they're not healthier people and they'll be paying through the nose. They don’t realize it yet.
(....)
JASON JOHNSON: Biggest winner? Vladimir Putin. He did it. He did it. He did what Gorbachev couldn't do, what Castro couldn't do. He basically took over the United States and got himself a Manchurian candidate and that is something no other Russian leader has been able to do. He'll be cheering about this and it will be in history books for the next 50 years. It’s a coup. It’s an amazing coup.
REID: No. It’s amazing Russia emerging as the global hegemony after we defeated them in the Cold War is shocking.
JOHNSON: Exactly.
REID: With the support of Republicans.
JOHNSON: With the support of Republicans and with the support of our brand new president-elect.
REID: Our biggest loser?
JOHNSON: Kanye West and I know this is supposed to be entirely political, but walk with me on this. He starts the year with The Life of Pablo. It seems like it's fine. But the problem is he exemplifies what happens when you try to mix pop culture and politics and make the wrong decisions. He came out against Black Lives Matter. He said that racism is bad and now he's allied himself with Trump, had to cancel concerts. People don’t respect him. People don’t like him. He may be the only person performing at the inauguration. This is a year that shows you: Keep your politics and your pop culture separate.
REID: And also remember that hip hop’s origins was always about fighting injustice and being on the side of progressives.
JOHNSON: Exactly.
REID: And not on the side of Donald Trump.
(....)
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: I just think the biggest winner is Michelle Obama just because I cannot imagine what an excruciating experience this must be for her right now, in some ways harder for her than President Obama because it’s harder to watch a person you love kind of go through this. She's watching the party that has certainly declared at the beginning that they wanted to make her husband a first term president now succeed in doing that and they're going to try and roll back much of his agenda and the person who won is the person who accused him of not even being an American and yet, she’s having to kind of — and she's doing this in a graceful way, saying look. I want to help the Trumps come in and help ease this and it’s smart. It’s part grace but it’s also smart cause the Obamas want to try and keep a pipeline to that.
