On Monday, Jennifer Rubin was at it again as the allegedly right-leaning Washington Post columnist and regular MSNBC guest was trashing fellow conservatives both on MSNBC and on her "Right Turn" blog at WashingtonPost.com. In a Monday morning blog post -- titled "Ending DACA Would Be Trump's Most Evil Act" -- Rubin excoriated the Republican party as the party of "white grievance" and as the "party of Charlottesville." She then declared that the GOP "deserves not defense but extinction."
As she appeared on MSNBC Live later in the day, she oddly suggested that President Donald Trump urge Congress to attach the extension of DACA to important legislation like Harvey relief or the debt ceiling increase.
At about 2:17 p.m. ET, MSNBC host Katy Tur read from part of Rubin's blog post about Trump's expected decision to end the DACA program. Quoting Rubin, Tur recounted:
"The debate, if there is one, is over whether to disappoint his rabid anti-immigrant base or to, as his inclination, double down on a losing hand."
Rubin immediately got to recommending that Trump link DACA to Harvey or the debt ceiling as she began:
I think if he really wanted to save these people, if he really meant all those pretty words about how he loves the dreamers, then there could have been a lot of things he could have done, including telling Congress to pass this as part of the Harvey package and as part of the debt limit increase - if he really wanted to push things.
After recalling that a number of Republican attorneys general were threatening to sue the Trump administration over DACA, she theorized that the move by the Trump administration was meant to be "read meat" for the Republican base.
She spent more time complaining about Trump, and then brought up the Charlottesville white racist rally and the President's pardon of former Arizona:sheriff Joe Arpaio as she added:
I think people will focus on Trump, particularly as it comes right after Charlottesville, right after the pardon of the Maricopa sheriff who practiced racial profiling and abused suspected immigrants. He is going to take the blame for this, and, frankly, I don't think Congress is going to be able to handle it. They could if they wanted to.
She again brought up the idea of attaching DACA to the debt ceiling as she continued:
They could attach it to funding at the end of September -- they could attach it to the debt ceiling -- and I think, as a result, not only are you going to have 800,000 plus people really put in grave distress, but you'll have employers, you'll have universities, you'll have communities that are really pretty much up in arms about this. I think it's the worst possible decision at the worst possible time.
Host Tur then read a little more of Rubin's words slamming the GOP from her blog post:
Yeah, in your op-ed, you say, "The party of Lincoln has become the party of Charlottesville and Arpaio."
Not mentioned on the air was that the full sentence -- which was how the blog post concluded -- asserted that the GOP "deserves not defense but extinction." Rubin:
The party of Lincoln has become the party of Charlottesville, Arpaio, DACA repeal and the Muslim ban. Embodying the very worst sentiments and driven by irrational anger, it deserves not defense by extinction.
