During Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC Live With Velshi and Ruhle, they championed the flimsiest and yet most horrific third allegation against Brett Kavanaugh, that he went to parties where women were drugged so that "trains" of male rapists could exploit them. Velshi and Ruhle were outraged that anyone would be skeptical of this story, even if the accuser, Julie Swetnick, was represented by Michael Avenatti, who is openly talking of running for president as a Democrat in 2020.
NBC's Kate Snow said advocates of sexual-assault victims would find Sen. Lindsey Graham guilty of "victim blaming" for questioning the charges, and then launched the same Cosby comparisons others tried on CNN and MSNBC. Even though she said “I’m not saying they’re similar. They may not be at all,” Snow completely discounted what she just said about the two cases not being similar and went on to highlight what she saw as all the similarities between the two cases:
STEPHANIE RUHLE: When you hear Lindsey Graham, a sitting senator, say things like "I find it curious that these charges were never brought forward until 2018" -- come on!
KATE SNOW: He said more than that. He said "I hope people will be highly suspicious of the allegation, because why would she go to ten parties, why would any reasonable person," I'm quoting, "continue to hang around people like this? If you talk to people in the world of, the people that advocate for victims and survivors of sexual violence, sexual assault, they call this victim blaming.
ALI VELSHI: "I hope people will be suspicious of the allegation" -- Can you imagine??
KATE SNOW: Be suspicious of the allegation because she kept going. And all I can sit here thinking is, I did a lot of reporting on the Cosby allegations. I'm not saying they're similar, they may not be at all. But Bill Cosby’s defense team in that courtroom in the spring when he was convicted, that was their argument.
And some of the women involved in the Cosby case said to me, it was an old-school 1970s, 1980s kind of argument. Why would you keep going back? In other words, why would Andrea Constand have, continue to have a relationship with Bill Cosby even after he had assaulted her? The jury didn’t buy that argument. The jury went with the prosecution and they convicted Bill Cosby. And yesterday he was led away in handcuffs. Again, I’m not saying they're the same but that argument of why didn’t she report it and why would she keep going back has been sort of, in the community of people that deal with this, psychologists, social workers, people who deal with trauma... have said again and again that that is not a reason to doubt someone.
The segment concluded with Ruhle saying “not that #MeToo is perfect but we hear all the time that everything is different now because of the #MeToo movement.” At this point, Velshi jumped in, saying “not everything,” while Ruhle concluded “when you hear a statement like that…it doesn’t feel that way.”
This is the same channel that went nuts when Sen. Graham referred to Ford as a “nice lady.”
A transcript of the relevant portion of MSNBC Live With Velshi and Ruhle is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC Live With Velshi and Ruhle
09/26/18
01:27 PM
ALI VELSHI: All right. That was Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, the outgoing Senator who, obviously has decided not to run again. Someone else will be running in his stead. Unclear, saying he’s going to keep an open mind about this. He does not make any predeterminations, he doesn’t think Brett Kavanaugh is a serial rapist nor does he disbelieve Christine Ford and he did make the point that notwithstanding this nomination or these allegations, he doesn’t think it’s strange that a high school girl might not have reported a sexual assault; which sounds to me a direct response to President Trump, who has said if this happened why wouldn’t her, meaning Christine Ford, and her loving parents have gone to the police? Why wouldn’t there be any evidence?
STEPHANIE RUHLE: And that’s not that dissimilar to the statement we got just a few minutes ago from Senator Lindsey Graham. Garrett Haake is live on The Hill. Garrett, why don’t you walk us through the statement we have gotten from Senator Graham?
GARRETT HAAKE: Graham has emerged as one of Brett Kavanaugh’s strongest defenders up here on Capitol Hill and there’s no change in that today. He released a statement a few minutes ago regarding the allegations brought forth by Michael Avenatti specifically. First, he takes aim at the fact that Avenatti himself is even involved; saying that he didn’t think that this process could go any lower. And then he starts to pick apart the specifics of the accusation, specifically saying that the accuser in this case says she attended parties over a two-year period where there were incidents that she found to be egregious, you know, ten of these incidents over a two-year period. Graham says at what point do you stop going to these parties? Why did you not report it at the time? Why would you put yourself and your friends in a situation over a two-year period where you continue to feel in this kind of danger and uses that argument to undercut what this accuser is saying through Avenatti. Again, it’s been interesting to watch Graham’s transformation here as someone who has, who has seen this now almost entirely through the lens of it being a smear campaign and he is someone who has said, unlike his colleague on the Judiciary Committee Jeff Flake, that he will be voting for Brett Kavanaugh unless the bottom falls out tomorrow and we learn something incredibly explosive that we don’t already know; which does not seem like it’s going to be the case.
VELSHI: Garrett, let me just be clear on something. Jeff Merkley filing suit to block the vote is not about these new allegations and it’s not about the Christine Blasey Ford allegations. It’s about documents that the Senate has asked for, the Senators have asked for, that have not been made available.
HAAKE: That’s correct. It’s a return to the argument that the Democrats were making before we got to this point…
VELSHI: Correct.
HAAKE: …of these sexual assault allegations saying that the White House was playing hide the ball from them and not being forthcoming, not giving them the information that the Senate needs to fulfill its Constitutional duty. Guys, I think it’s pretty clear, Democrats smell blood in the water here on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination here. The fight looked like it was almost over at the end of that first round of confirmation hearings and it has very much rejoined on all fronts at this point.
RUHLE: But to that point, you’re absolutely correct. Democrats smell blood in the water and it goes back to what we just heard Jeff Flake saying. We do have to consider Christine Ford’s family. We do have to consider Brett Kavanaugh’s family and how politicized this has become. Kate, as someone who’s reported on this for as long as you have, when you hear Lindsey Graham, a sitting Senator, say things like I find it curious these charges were never brought forward until 2018. Come on!
KATE SNOW: And it’s more than that. He said I hope people will be highly suspicious of the allegation because why would she go to ten parties? Why would any reasonable person, I’m quoting, continue to hang around people like this? If you talk to people in the world of…the people that advocate for victims and survivors of sexual violence, sexual assault, they call this victim blaming. They call this…
VELSHI: I hope people will be suspicious of the allegation. Can you imagine?
SNOW: Be suspicious of the allegation because it was…because she kept going. And all I can sit here thinking is I did a lot of work reporting on the Cosby allegations. I’m not saying they’re similar. They may not be at all. But Bill Cosby’s defense team in that courtroom in the spring when he was convicted, that was their argument. And some of the women involved in the Cosby case said to me, it was an old-school 1970s, 1980s kind of argument. Why would you keep going back? In other words, why would Andrea Constand have, continue to have a relationship with Bill Cosby even after he had assaulted her? The jury didn’t buy that argument. The jury went with the prosecution and they convicted Bill Cosby. And yesterday, he was led away in handcuffs. Again, I’m not saying they’re the same but that argument of why didn’t she report it and why would she keep going back has been sort of, in the community of people that deal with this, psychologists, social workers, people who deal with trauma…
RUHLE: Victims.
SNOW: …have said again and again that that is not a reason to doubt someone.
VELSHI: All right. Kate, thank you for that. And thank you to both of you, we probably are going to need to come back…don’t stay, don’t go too far.
RUHLE: We…not that #MeToo is perfect but we hear all the time that everything is different now because of the #MeToo movement.
VELSHI: Not everything.
RUHLE: And when you hear a statement like that…
VELSHI: Not everything.
\RUHLE: …it doesn’t feel that way.
