During a contentious interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio on Friday morning, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle grilled the Republican lawmaker on his criticism of media outlets pushing Chinese propaganda about the coronavirus pandemic. Rubio pushed back hard and doubled down on his condemnation of journalists parroting talking points from China’s authoritarian communist regime.
“With all due respect, sir, you’re not immune to finger pointing yourself. Earlier this week, you called out people that share my job,” Ruhle complained. She then quoted a recent tweet from the Senator: “I’ll share just the beginning, where you wrote, ‘Some in our media can’t contain their glee and delight in reporting that the U.S. has more coronavirus cases than China. Beyond being grotesque, it’s bad journalism.’”
She treated the completely valid criticism as if it were a personal affront: “I need to ask you this because I’m a journalist. We’re not just some personalities, you called out journalism. And I need to understand why on Earth you did this.”
Without missing a beat, Rubio replied: “Well, because there are some journalists that were doing exactly what I said.” He then listed examples:
An editorial cartoonist, I think, is considered a journalist. A columnist for GQ is considered a journalist. A magazine that’s distributed at least online is considered journalism. And every single one of those and others had headlines about how “We’re number one.” They got that trending last Friday.
The Senator even employed a common tactic of the press: “Now, that’s why I used the word ‘some.’ Just like often I read reports about how ‘some Republicans’ are doing this or ‘some’ members of Congress are doing that.”
Referring to an earlier part of the discussion in which Rubio cautioned her against rushing to attack Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for not issuing a statewide stay-at-home order sooner, Ruhle declared: “But, sir, just a moment ago you said we shouldn’t be wasting any time pointing fingers or criticizing and that’s exactly what you did in that tweet.”
Putting aside the obvious hypocrisy of the anchor suddenly not wanting to point fingers, Rubio proclaimed:
Yeah, but the difference is that this is an ongoing deal here, what we’re dealing with right now. And that is a Chinese propaganda effort to put out that they have handled this perfectly and we have not. And that is a – national security and the national interest of the United States does not stop....there were many days out there where people were basically taking the Chinese number of 80,000-something infections and saying look how great they did it and look how bad we’re doing it. And that’s not only wrong, that’s a national security issue. We know that that is a propaganda influence effort that they’re undertaking...
As Rubio noted, the amount of Chinese propaganda being adopted by the American media is truly disturbing – with MSNBC being one of the worst offenders.
Here is a transcript of the April 3 exchange:
9:39 AM ET
(...)
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Well then, with all due respect, sir, you’re not immune to finger pointing yourself. Earlier this week, you called out people that share my job and I do have to share your tweet in its entirety – or not actually its entirety because I can’t get to all of it. I’ll share just the beginning, where you wrote, “Some in our media can’t contain their glee and delight in reporting that the U.S. has more coronavirus cases than China. Beyond being grotesque, it’s bad journalism.” I need to ask you this because I’m a journalist. We’re not just some personalities, you called out journalism. And I need to understand why on Earth you did this.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO [R-FL]: Well, because there are some journalists that were doing exactly what I said. And I posted some of their tweets. An editorial cartoonist, I think, is considered a journalist. A columnist for GQ is considered a journalist. A magazine that’s distributed at least online is considered journalism. And every single one of those and others had headlines about how “We’re number one.” They got that trending last Friday.
Now, that’s why I used the word “some.” Just like often I read reports about how “some Republicans” are doing this or “some” members of Congress are doing that. I don’t know what other word to describe who’s doing something and who isn’t. And I don’t know what other word to use to describe these individuals other than journalism. They most certainly –
RUHLE: But if you were criticizing people for wasting –
RUBIO: Go ahead, I’m sorry.
RUHLE: But, sir, just a moment ago you said we shouldn’t be wasting any time pointing fingers or criticizing and that’s exactly what you did in that tweet.
RUBIO: Yeah, but the difference is that this is an ongoing deal here, what we’re dealing with right now. And that is a Chinese propaganda effort to put out that they have handled this perfectly and we have not. And that is a – national security and the national interest of the United States does not stop. Now, when the orders were not in place for the governor to do that, I didn’t say people couldn’t criticize the decision not to implement an order. But now that decision’s been made.
And in the case of that reporting, now maybe it’s diminished in the last few days, but there were many days out there where people were basically taking the Chinese number of 80,000-something infections and saying look how great they did it and look how bad we’re doing it. And that’s not only wrong, that’s a national security issue. We know that that is a propaganda influence effort that they’re undertaking along with Putin in Russia, even the Iranians. And national security and the national interest of this country does not stop, because that’s an ongoing concern even in the midst of this crisis.
RUHLE: All right then. Senator, this is the perfect time for all of us to do everything we can to work together to face this disastrous crisis. I really appreciate you joining me this morning, I know it’s a really busy time. Senator Marco Rubio from Florida.
RUBIO: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
