MSNBC host Hallie Jackson on Thursday went easy on Rashida Tlaib while asking about fellow Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's cringe-inducing comments about 9/11. The journalist allowed Tlaib to call for civility, despite her profanity-laced tirade against Donald Trump. Jackson also skipped the Democrat’s meeting with an Israel-hating defender of Hezbollah.
Regarding Representative Omar dismissing the September 11, 2001 terror attacks as “some people did something,” the host only gently worried, “Do you think she should have rethought her words? Do you worry about the appropriateness of that?” After Tlaib blasted the criticism of Omar as racism, Jackson comforted, “It's obviously something you feel very passionate about.”
Jackson referenced Omar’s appearance on The Late Show — where host Stephen Colbert did not even bring up the 9/11 comments — and offered a rambling question that painfully strived to not offend the Democrat:
[Omar] talked about this a little bit on the Colbert show last night. She wasn’t directly asked about those 9/11 comments, but she was just asked just in general about the idea that she, as she put it, a lightning rod because she thinks where our nation is right now there are many members of the community who do have a lot of different identities, immigrants, people of color, minorities, Muslims and she embodies all of those sort of in one person, as one identity and feels that has made her a target of criticism.
I want to ask you how you see that, what your reaction is to that. To be clear, it sounds like you're saying you don’t think she should have rethought her words. You think her words are being taken out of context. And you are comfortable with what she said and not the criticism she’s receiving.
The New York Post on Friday featured a front cover of the planes hitting the World Trade Center. Tlaib hypocritically called for civility: “We need to unite our country against those kinds of hateful, you know, the New York Post cover and any of the attacks I’ve seen over and over again of Sister Ilhan Omar.”
Maybe the person who screamed that she was going to “impeach the motherfucker” Trump isn’t in the best position to call for calm. But, of course, Jackson didn’t make that point. Another question the journalist could have asked: Why did Tlaib meet with a pro-Hezbollah activist who hates Israel?
Abbas Hamideh is the man who said, “Israel does not have a right to exist. The terrorist entity is illegal and has no basis to exist other than a delusional ISIS-like ideology.” Hamideh tweeted that he was “honored” to be at Tlaib's swearing in and a private dinner with the Congresswoman.
On Thursday, ABC and CBS ignored Omar’s 9/11 comments. NBC painted her as a victim.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC Live
4/11/19
10:45AM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: I know there's something else that has been on your mind and a lot of folks' minds and that is some comments and some backlash to congresswoman Ilan Omar after comments surfaced this week. And I want to play it. She said something about the 9/11 attacks. I want to talk about your reaction to the backlash and your reaction to the comment in two pieces. So, here is that remark, congresswoman.
ILHAN OMAR: CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.
JACKSON: It's that phrase, “Some people did something,” that is being picked up on by some of the Congresswoman’s critics including, for example, the cover of the New York Post which I'll ask you about in a second. But on these remarks themselves, “Some people did something” is a reference to 9/11, do you think she should have rethought her words? Do you worry about the appropriateness of that?
CONGRESSWOMAN RASHIDA TLAIB: They do that all the time to us, especially women of color. They do that. They take our words out of context because they're afraid because we speak truth. We speak truth to power. My sister Ilhan Omar what she was talking about was uplifting people by supporting their civil liberties and civil rights.
She has always, always, always condemned any strategy, especially of a person directly impacted by being a refugee herself. She sees what terrorism can do, she sees what violence can do to a whole country, to a whole people, taking it out of context. This is just pure racist act by many of those, hateful acts by those because she does speak truth when she talks about different issues they don't disagree [sic] with. I'm outraged. As a person that has gotten direct death threats myself, I know her life is put in more danger and I see her not just my sister Ilhan Omar, but as a colleague, but a mother of three. I can't imagine their lives without her. The fact that people are irresponsibly taking those words out of context and endangering the life of Rep. Omar is immoral, is wrong and needs to be called out by many of my colleagues. Not just myself and saying they need to stop, stop targeting her this way. It's absolutely putting her life in danger.
JACKSON: It's obviously something you feel very passionate about. I know there was the cover of the Post that came out that caught a lot of people's attention that showed that very difficult image to look at from 9/11 with the headline "Here's Your Something" in reference to the words she used. Your reaction to this.
TLAIB: I mean, it’s just wrong. Think about it. They take those words -- if you look at the context, people have written about the fact that they took those words and completely transformed it to be something ugly and something hateful. That's exactly what it wasn't. She was talking about civil liberties and civil rights issues.
...
TLAIB: We need to unite our country against those kinds of hateful, you know, the New York Post cover and any of the attacks I’ve seen over and over again of Sister Ilhan Omar.
JACKSON: She talked about this a little bit on the Colbert show last night. She wasn’t directly asked about those 9/11 comments, but she was just asked just in general about the idea that she, as she put it, a lightning rod because she thinks where our nation is right now there are many members of the community who do have a lot of different identities, immigrants, people of color, minorities, Muslims and she embodies all of those sort of in one person, as one identity and feels that has made her a target of criticism. I want to ask you how you see that, what your reaction is to that. To be clear, it sounds like you're saying you don’t think she should have rethought her words. You think her words are being taken out of context. And you are comfortable with what she said and not the criticism she’s receiving.
TLAIB: I’m not for policing people. That’s what they are doing to us women of color.
...
