Another Democratic debate and that means it’s time for another appearance by Michael Moore on MSNBC. Last time, the cable network let the far-left filmmaker rant for 12 minutes on the need for a liberal 2020 nominee. On Wednesday night, Moore talked, with just a few minor interruptions, for seven minutes and declared, “I am the center” of the Democratic Party.
Brian Williams excitedly introduced, “Michael Moore is back with us. Michigander, movie maker, muckraker in the finest tradition.” Moore praised the Democratic Party moving left: “You guys were talking about how we have to be more moderate or move to the center, that's how we're going to win next year. See, to me, I think moving to the center — I am the center. I am the mainstream now of the Democratic Party.”
The documentarian cheered, “The majority of Americans agree with me and Bernie on all the issues, whether it's — whether it's health care for all, climate change, minimum wage, mass incarceration, go down the whole list. The American people have moved left.”
As Moore called for hard-edge liberalism, Williams hardly flinched, like here when the Fahrenheit 9/11 director touted Democrats standing up to Israel:
And tonight, [Bernie Sanders] said something that I don't think I've ever heard at a Democratic debate, let alone, obviously not a Republican, he said that the Palestinians were human beings. He said that we cannot support Israel and be against the Palestinian people. It's — we're being hypocritical if we do that. We support Israel, but that means we have to support the people who are the Palestinians. That got a huge applause. The same applause that Beto O'Rourke got when he said, "We're coming for your AR-15s and your AK-47s." The only time that people in Houston rose out of their seats was when he said that and it was a powerful thing.
The best Williams could do is mildly explain to Moore: “To distill the problem people have with that moment, I think, is on one side, people said, 'This congressman, now out of the race, former congressman from Texas, just gave the Republicans the opening paragraph of their opening salvo of the ad war of the year.'”
In August, Moore appeared on MSNBC and talked for 12 minutes. He declared, “Let's get out the Democratic base of young people, women, and people of color.” Moore warned Democrats: “The worst thing to do is to moderate, to go to the center, and to think that's how we're going to win. This is how we're going to lose.”
A partial transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC post-Debate coverage
11/20/19
MICHAEL MOORE: And tonight, [Bernie Sanders] said something that I don't think I've ever heard at a Democratic debate, let alone, obviously not a Republican, he said that the Palestinians were human beings. He said that we cannot support Israel and be against the Palestinian people. It's — we're being hypocritical if we do that. We support Israel, but that means Israel, but that means we have to support the Palestinians. That got a huge applause. The same applause that Beto O'Rourke got when he said, "We're coming for your AR-15s."
...
BRIAN WILLIAMS: To distill the problem people have with that moment, I think, is on one side, people said, “This congressman, now out of the race, former congressman from Texas, just gave the Republicans the opening paragraph of their opening salvo of the ad war of the year.” The other folks said, “Job one should be beating Donald Trump.” Where do you come down on job one?
MOORE: Job one is beating — actually, job one is convicting and removing Donald Trump sometime in the next couple of months.
WILLIAMS: It’s like guns and butter.
MOORE: So, it's like, if you really want to go to number one. After what we heard today? He shouldn't be there in that White House, in our White House, another single day. Somebody said earlier on one of the shows here that — that in the — in the old days, there would be a delegation of Republicans going up to the White House —
CLAIRE MCCASKILL: That’s it. You’re out.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Barry Goldwater and John Rhodes and Hugh Scott.
MCCASKILL: Exactly.
MOORE: That's what happens. And so that's — so, that's job one. Job one for the election next year is to make sure that we not only get rid of Trump or Trump's replacement, but we get rid of that which gave us Trump. That's really what the real issue should be. And if we keep -- if we keep supporting — I was listening earlier, listening, I have so much respect for Senator McCaskill here, and everyone cried when you were not returned last year.
MCCASKILL: My husband's a Michigander, so, we think you're pretty cool, too.
MOORE: Then that's even better. But I really — I want to redefine in the way last time I was here, we talk about the working class and I said, the majority of the working class actually are women, people of color and young people are paid the least. So, when we say working class, it's always, we're always evoking this image of lunch bucket Joe from Macomb County . The actual working class of 2019 is a 30-year-old black woman. That's really the working class. And when you say working class, I want everybody to always think, now, that's a 30-year-old black woman, because that is really the working class. And when you say the working class, I want everyone to always think now, that’s a 30-year-old black woman, because that is what the working class is. Just in the same way I think that we have to — when you guys were talking about how we have to be more moderate or move to the center, that's how we're going to win next year. See, to me, I think moving to the center — I am the center. I am the mainstream now of the Democratic Party. The majority of Americans agree with me and Bernie on all the issues, whether it's — whether it's health care for all, climate change, minimum wage, mass incarceration, go down the whole list. The American people have moved left.
So, the center is now more of these sorts of things. This is what we believe. So, when you say, like, for instance, with Joe Biden said tonight, “160 million Americans want to keep their private insurance.” Says who? Are you actually talking to people about this? Yes, they want the assurance that whatever we have with the new medicare for all is just a transfer from what we have with their good union health care, it's going to be better for you, you're not going to have co-pays and deductibles — fine. The average Democrat and the average American does not like the health insurance company. They hate Aetna and Cigna and united health care. These are people that they're fighting with to get them to pay a bill that they won't pay. The health care industry has caused more pain and harm and anxiety for the American people than practically any other industry. And we should never side with candidates that are — say we're going to keep this private profit-making thing going. That's not where the American people are at. They are fed up with this and I'll tell you, I got an earful of it back home in Flint last month when general motors was on strike.
