Appearing as a guest on Monday's MSNBC Live with Craig Melvin, MSNBC Republican contributor Rick Tyler was again failing to actually sound like a conservative-leaning analyst as he not only agreed with former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards that a Supreme Court confirmation battle would likely benefit Democrats, but he even argued that pro-life conservatives should support keeping ObamaCare in place.
Host Melvin introduced the segment by recalling polling which suggests Democrats are currently more motivated on the Supreme Court issue than Republicans, and then asked for Richards's response. After the pro-abortion Richards gave the kind of response one would expect from a liberal guest, slamming Republicans over the possibility of "jamming through an anti-choice appointment," the MSNBC host went to Tyler for his reaction.
Melvin sounded like he was inviting Tyler to balance the discussion by giving commentary that would sound more favorable to the Republican side as he posed:
Rick, this does give Republicans something to talk about -- something to run on besides the pandemic and, quite frankly, the President. Do you see this fight over the open seat as boosting Republican support among voters who were thinking of sitting this one out or perhaps even some of the so-called Never Trumpers?
Instead of taking that hint, Tyler agreed with Richards that Democrats would likely benefit, speculated about how the vote might play out if Democrat Mark Kelly is elected to the Senate in an Arizona special election, and argued that Democrats have a stronger election argument if Republicans push to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat:
So if I had to look at a voter and say, "Let me forget that I lost my job -- let me forget that, you know, the pandemic has turned my life upside down, by God we've got to get another Supreme Court justice on the Court," I don't think that's the winning argument. I think the winning argument is, "Remember you lost your job -- remember your life is upside down -- and Donald Trump thinks that the most important thing in the world is to put a justice on the Supreme Court." I think the Democrats have the upper hand here. Politically speaking.
After giving Richards another turn to speak, Melvin returned to Tyler. instead of acknowledging any of the arguments that ObamaCare has been harmful, the allegedly right-leaning analyst made an argument that pro-lifers should be afraid of the Supreme Court possibly striking down ObamaCare as a result of an appointment being made by a Republican President:
But let me make an argument really quickly about a pro-life argument for the health care act that was just mentioned, the ACA. Taking away preexisting conditions -- in my view, as someone who is pro-life -- is wrong because if life is to be viable, then protecting life is inviolable, which means preexisting conditions, is that you have to protect and maintain life if you're truly going to be pro-life. And so I would urge the pro-life community to look at health and health care, and that health care is a right. And why is it a right? Because we have a right to maintain life.
Appearing as a guest on Sunday's Velshi show, MSNBC contributor Tyler demonstrated once again that, when a Republican signs on to work for MSNBC out of opposition to their own party over just one or two issues -- like opposing Donald Trump -- it ends up pervading into their commentary on every issue.
Instead of making some obvious points in defense of Republican eagerness to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the U.S. Supreme Court immediately, he instead argued that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should have allowed a vote on Merrick Garland four years ago, and decried his fellow Republicans for showing "rank hypocrisy."
Tyler then made his misleading reference to Justice Kennedy's confirmation, and further argued that Garland should have been given more of a chance by Republicans in 2016:
Well, Ronald Reagan -- Ronald Reagan appointed in 1988 -- an election year -- Anthony Kennedy -- and so that's just a fiction. And now we're here, and Republicans say they didn't believe what they said in 2016, and that is just rank hypocrisy. But the truth is, Ali, is that Merrick Garland and Neil Gorsuch both served on the D.C. Circuit Court, and there's not a dime's worth of ideological difference between them. And that's just a fact -- you can just go look at their writings.
An analyst who was actually interested in giving a more balanced presentation could have pointed out that, over the past few decades, Democrats have helped lead the push toward more partisan confirmation fights, and would likely have done the same thing in both 2016 and 2020 if the roles had been reversed, as evidenced by Senator Joe Biden in 1992 suggesting as much.
MSNBC's poor excuse for balanced political discussion was sponsored by Uber Eats. Their contact information is linked.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, September 21, MSNBC Live with Craig Melvin:
MSNBC Live with Craig Melvin
9/23/2020
11:06 a.m.
CRAIG MELVIN: Back in 2016, according to NBC News exit polls, voters who rated the Supreme Court as the most important factor in their votes -- they favored President Trump over Hillary Clinton. A Marquette poll taken just days before Justice Ginsburg's death shows that 59 percent of Biden voters rated the Supreme Court as "very important" to their votes, more than Trump voters. Democrats were motivated before, clearly, but, since her death, there are reports they have raised more than $100 million on their fundraising platform, Act Blue. Cecile, how galvanizing of a force do we think that Justice Ginsburg's death is going to be?
CECILE RICHARDS, FORMER PRESIDENT OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Well, picking this partisan fight right now is only inflaming a group that I've really been watching, and that's women. As we know right now, women are deeply concerned about the pandemic, about the fact that schools are not able to reopen. They're worried about their health and safety -- about record unemployment -- and the fact that this President would now avoid all of those issues and rush to try to jam through an anti-choice appointment to the Supreme Court is only making women more concerned and more motivated to vote. I know the most recent polls showed that Donald Trump is losing suburban women by 30 points, and all this is going to do is expand that gender gap.
MELVIN: Rick, this does give Republicans something to talk about -- something to run on besides the pandemic and, quite frankly, the President. Do you see this fight over the open seat as boosting Republican support among voters who were thinking of sitting this one out or perhaps even some of the so-called Never Trumpers?
RICK TYLER, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: That's not what the polling shows, Craig. It appears that Democrats are more motivated to vote based on who would pick the, you know, presumably, another Supreme Court justice. Republicans, in the end, may win this. They may actually get someone -- they may actually get their nominee on the court. That probably would most likely occur in a lame duck session of Congress unless they can get one more Republican, or there's an outside chance that Mark Kelly would win his seat, which is a special election, and then you'd have a fight over when he's actually going to be seated because he would provide another vote to block a nomination. So we'll have to let that play out.
But I also have to look at other things, Craig, like, in battleground states, you have 95, upward of 90 percent -- in some cases, 95 percent -- of the voters have just made up their mind. You also have people voting today, like, I will vote in Virginia -- Virginia is voting today -- and so those folks have already made up their minds how much of this is going to move. And the third thing is that, in terms of issues, Supreme Court justice, you know, it was sort of an ethereal thing, and that changed, but now we have the pandemic coupled with an economic crisis which is a result of mismanagement of the pandemic.
So if I had to look at a voter and say, "Let me forget that I lost my job -- let me forget that, you know, the pandemic has turned my life upside down, by God we've got to get another Supreme Court justice on the Court," I don't think that's the winning argument. I think the winning argument is, "Remember you lost your job -- remember your life is upside down -- and Donald Trump thinks that the most important thing in the world is to put a justice on the Supreme Court." I think the Democrats have the upper hand here. Politically speaking.
(...)
MELVIN: Rick, really quickly, you know, whatever your politics, when you look at what is going to be the legacy of this President from a legislative standpoint -- not the other stuff -- but when you look at his legacy, I think you would be hard-pressed to find a President who has managed to get as many judicial picks -- not just on the Supreme Court, not just the two he's gotten so far, but the lower courts as well -- is that going to probably be the legacy of Donald Trump?
RICK TYLER, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: It may very well be, Craig, but remember, you know, Ronald Reagan picked Anthony Kennedy -- actually in an election year, 1988 -- to be a nominee, and Bush -- I think it was Bush who chose Souter, I mean, judges can be very disappointing, so we don't know how it's going to. But let me make an argument really quickly about a pro-life argument for the health care act that was just mentioned, the ACA. Taking away preexisting conditions -- in my view, as someone who is pro-life -- is wrong because if life is to be viable, then protecting life is inviolable, which means preexisting conditions, is that you have to protect and maintain life if you're truly going to be pro-life. And so I would urge the pro-life community to look at health and health care, and that health care is a right. And why is it a right? Because we have a right to maintain life.
MELVIN: And also it seems as if a number of Senate Republicans are coming around to that point of view.
