Behold, the latest example of something that it’s totally real and not out a Babylon Bee headline. After Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) led off Wednesday’s RNC with a speech hailing the ingeniousness of Founders and imploring Americans to reject lawlessness, MSNBC coverage co-host Rachel Maddow was triggered and felt the need to cut away from the convention to offer “a reality check” seeing as how what Noem said was “very wrong.”
And of all the people to call on, Maddow brought in Seattle Mayor Jenny “Summer of Love” Durkan (D) to insist that life has been, and will continue to be, just peachy in the King city. That’s despite, you know, the facts showing otherwise about rising crime in major U.S. cities.
On top of that, Maddow turned to the mayor of the city where a police precinct was overrun, rioters tried to burn down a police precinct with offers inside, an entire neighborhood briefly became its own country (R.I.P, CHOP), multiple people were killed in said break-away enclave, businesses were threatened (with some now suing), and the police chief quit out of a lack of respect for police.
Maddow began her cut-in by complaining Noem “said a lot of things” and she was an example of where MSNBC need to “interject when we feel like there is something that's important and deliberate and very wrong that should be corrected just so that we feel responsible about our broadcast.”
Reading from Noem’s speech that cited New York, Portland, Seattle, and Washington D.C., Maddow insisted Durkan was needed “to essentially run a reality check on that assertion.”
Durkan thanked Maddow “for letting me respond” and declared not only does President Trump not embrace “equality, freedom, and opportunity,” but the “caricature of the great cities across America” he’s offered (along with Noem) “is not only wrong, it is purposefully wrong.”
Questioning Noem’s intelligence, Durkan declared that she should “get off Twitter and get off Fox News and come see our city” because “Seattle is a city that I raised my two children in and I would not have raised them anywhere else.” She added that Seattle’s in great shape because “our housing prices continue to increase.” Yikes.
Things got even more ridiculous when Maddow complained that Republicans believe if Democrats obtain more power, cities will descend “into a Hobbesian struggle for the strongest” and she put this on the tee for Durkan to hit:
That caricature has been used really against Seattle more than anywhere else. Does it have a material effect on your ability to govern and Seattle's ability to get the resources that it's needs for what the city needs to get done?
Durkan replied that her ability to competently function as mayor was hindered “this summer...because the President and Fox News were so insistent on driving that message that people started to come there to make the reality real.”
“We have a growing city that has real — you know, the best workforce anywhere and it's not as portrayed by the President or by Governor Noem. I mean, he tried to make it sound like there were mobs rampant throughout Seattle. That’s not the case,” she concluded.
With murder being perhaps the top metric in terms of crime, perhaps Maddow and Durkan should consult the facts here, here, and here. And NewsBusters offered an extensive list of examples from earlier in the summer here.
Going to break, Maddow thanked Durkan and claimed that MSNBC doesn’t “intend to interject throughout the evening, but when something really, really wrong gets said deliberately, particularly when they’re trying to build a theme around it — a theme around it, we feel responsible to correct the record.”
But if the people interjecting don’t have the facts on their side, how can we “interject” to correct them?
MSNBC’s whitewashing was made possible by advertisers such as Amazon, Chevrolet, Prevagen, and Safelite. Follow the links to the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from August 26, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Decision 2020: Republican National Convention
August 26, 2020
8:41 p.m. EasternRACHEL MADDOW: We're just going to interject here just for a moment. That was the South Dakota governor Kristi Noem who said a lot of things. But we have — as we have said over the course of this coverage, we will interject when we feel like there is something that's important and deliberate and very wrong that should be corrected just so that we feel responsible about our broadcast. In this case, Governor Noem just said: “From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. The violence is rampant. There’s looting, chaos, destruction, murder. People that can afford to flee have fled.” Joining us for more on that and to essentially run a reality check on that assertion is the mayor of the great city of Seattle, Jenny Durkan, who is joining us on short notice. Mayor Durkan, thank you very much for getting on the phone for us tonight to — to respond to this from Governor Noem. I just wanted to ask your impression of those remarks from her.
JENNY DURKAN; So, thank you for letting me respond. I will say one thing. She is very right about one thing, and that is our values are at stake: equality, freedom and opportunity. And unfortunately, this President does not stand for any of those values. And her caricature of the great cities across America is not only wrong, it is purposefully wrong. I think she needs to get off Twitter and get off Fox News and come see our city. Seattle is a city that I raised my two children in and I would not have raised them anywhere else. They are fine young man as their friends, but our violent crime is down five percent this year. We have — people are not leaving Seattle. In fact, again, our housing prices continue to increase, and the people moving here are young families.
MADDOW: Mayor Durkan, the — the caricature of our city and other — as the Republicans say, Democrat-run cities cause they don’t like to say Democratic — I don’t know — is that the whole country is at risk of falling into anarchy and chaos and that if — if — if Democrats have control over more of the country things will fall apart into a Hobbesian struggle for the strongest. That caricature has been used really against Seattle more than anywhere else. Does it have a material effect on your ability to govern and Seattle's ability to get the resources that it's needs for what the city needs to get done?
DUKRAN: It did have an impact this summer on something because the President and Fox News were so insistent on driving that message that people started to come there to make the reality real, but our city, like every city in America right now, with COVID-19 and a challenging economy is — has — has been a lot to work through, and that's where we need federal leadership and that's where he has absolutely failed. Mayors in America were on the front line of COVID-19 because there was no federal leadership. We're on the federal lines of the civil rights movement of our time because there is no federal leadership. He cannot answer those questions, so he tries to change the topic and Seattle is a great city. We have some of the most innovative employers anywhere. We have a growing city that has real — you know, the best workforce anywhere and it's not as portrayed by the President or by Governor Noem. I mean, he tried to make it sound like there were mobs rampant throughout Seattle. That’s not the case.
MADDOW: Mayor Jenny Durkan of the great American city of Seattle. Mayor Durkan, thank you for joining us on short notice tonight. Again, we don't intend to interject throughout the evening, but when something really, really wrong gets said deliberately, particularly when they’re trying to build a theme around it — a theme around it, we feel responsible to correct the record.
