Things got very twisted on MSNBC’s The Last Word Monday night, as two giggly journalists smeared Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for invoking Rule 19 against his colleague from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren. CBS's Nancy Giles described McConnell as on a power trip, “I mean, it's like I think they are drunk with power. It's not ‘like,’ they are. They’ve got the House and they’ve got the Senate.”
The Daily Beast’s Erin Gloria Ryan took it a step farther and joked that Senate Republicans really were drunk Tuesday night. “They're acting kind of drunk. This is a drunk thing to do,” she said excitedly playing off Giles.
Those weren’t the only ridiculous comments made by the duo. Right out of the gate, Giles claimed that the real reason McConnell had Warren ‘silenced’ was because she was reading the words of a black woman in the month of February:
So they had to silence her. I mean, we're right now at the beginning of February, which is Black History Month. So between that and March being Women's History Month, they can kind of kill two birds with one stone by silencing one of the most iconic, important civil rights leaders, because Coretta was there with Martin doing stuff and putting the kibosh on Elizabeth.
“It was just bad. It looked bad. It looked like little girl sit down. And it was pretty disgusting,” she continued to ramble on. From there, fill-in host Ari Melber and her mocked President Trump for his recent Frederick Douglass gaff.
“I saw it as a real unforced error by the Republicans. The optics of this were so bad,” Ryan argued while lecturing Senate Republicans, “If they would have left Elizabeth Warren to say what she was going to say in peace and then let her sit down on her own, they wouldn't be dealing with the day they've been asking today.”
But Ryan also spewed nonsense in claiming the majority leader was playing some type of bigot bingo where he was trying to anger the most people possible:
Instead what they're doing is basically filling a card of social justice bingo. She is a woman being shouted down by a man because she is reading the words of a black female civil rights leader during Black History Month.
They then went on to glorify the backlash against McConnell with bingo becoming a running theme to their conversation. They themselves seemed to be playing their own game of bingo where they hit every typical smear against conservatives as they possibly could. Giles even joked that she’s using whiteout on Democrats who vote with Republicans on nominations.
Transcript below:
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MSNBC
The Last Word
February 8, 2017
10:38:53 PM EasternARI MELBER: Joining us now as promised is Nancy Giles, contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning and the host of the Giles Files podcast. And Erin Gloria Ryan, a senior editor for The Daily Beast. Nancy, why did Senator Elizabeth Warren get such disparate treatment as compared to what we showed before the break, all the other senatorial attacks?
NANCY GILES: Well actually, I think what Senator Graham said is true, but he left out the part that they're really scared of her. So they had to silence her. I mean, we're right now at the beginning of February, which is Black History Month. So between that and March being Women's History Month, they can kind of kill two birds with one stone by silencing one of the most iconic, important civil rights leaders, because Coretta was there with Martin doing stuff and putting the kibosh on Elizabeth. It was just bad. It looked bad. It looked like little girl sit down. And it was pretty disgusting.
MELBER: You mentioned Black History Month, which minds me.
GILES: Frederick Douglass is really getting out there. He is getting more recognition, which is good to know.
MELBER: Day by day.
GILES: Day by day, yes.
ERIN GLORIA RYAN: Good for him.
GILES: He is trending.
MELBER: Erin, what did you see in that altercation?
RYAN: I saw it as a real unforced-error by the Republicans. The optics of this were so bad. If they would have left Elizabeth Warren to say what she was going to say in peace and then let her sit down on her own, they wouldn't be dealing with the day they've been asking today. Instead what they're doing is basically filling a card of social justice bingo. She is a woman being shouted down by a man because she is reading the words of a black female civil rights leader during Black History Month.
GILES: Thank you.
RYAN: And it was just why did Mitch McConnell have to do that? It is baffling to me. Because if he wouldn't, there wouldn't be a 5 million view video on Facebook of Elizabeth Warren completing her speech.
GILES: I mean, it's like I think they are drunk with power. It's not like, they are. They’ve got the House and they’ve got the Senate.
RYAN: They're acting kind of drunk. This is a drunk thing to do.
GILES: Well, speaking of drunk, the whole thing started because, you know, there was a fistfight, literally a fistfight in the senate in, I think, 1902. And other senators were getting punched.
