Further demonstrating that tone-deaf hypocrites have no sense of irony, Lawrence O’Donnell went on an unhinged rant and deployed the very tactics he decries.
Thursday, O'Donnell started his show off on a low note, ranting about how Republican Senators "don’t care" about Capitol Police officers and or think their deaths "are worth investigating” because the GOP doesn't support the creation of a commission into the January 6th riots at the US Capitol.
O’Donnell then decided to dig up an old favorite boogeyman: the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, and compared him to Senate Republicans for the alleged sin of not supporting their commission..
“McCarthyism is back in the form of Kevin McCarthyism, which is not just a devotion to the Trump lies about the election, but a devotion to lying itself, about everything, including January 6th.” said O’Donnell. “The Republican Senate is now filled with McCarthys,” O’Donnell whined. Lawrence O’Donnell is using the same tactics against Republicans that Joseph McCarthy was accused of using against people in the 1950s.
Later in the segment, O’Donnell made the outrageous accusation that Republicans don’t care about what happened on January 6th, and how they are somehow supporting “Mitch McConnell’s lie” that what happened on January 6th isn’t worth investigating. Which is the exact opposite of what McConnell has said.
It's obvious O’Donnell doesn't pay attention to Senator McConnell’s reasoning for his opposition to the commission. Maybe he doesn't care, or maybe he doesn’t know how to access McConnell’s press releases on the internet.
Either way, questioning the motives of those you disagree with while accusing them of being McCarthyites, is hypocritical and dishonest.
This ridiculously hypocritical segment was brought to you by Allstate and Applebee's. Contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back page here.
Read the transcript below by clicking "expand:"
The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell
5/27/2021
10:03PM
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Republican Senators absolutely do not care about house staffers more than they care about Capitol Police officers, and the deaths of Capitol Police officers are not worth investigating. As far as most Republican Senators are concerned, the injuries to over 140 Capitol Police officers are not worth investigating. The most ringing rebuke of a United States Senator in the entire 20th century was delivered by Attorney Joseph Welsh in 1954 in the form of a question to the vicious, lying Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency?" That question stopped Joseph McCarthy. Joseph McCarthy died three years later, and the disgrace of what was then called McCarthyism seemed to die with him, but McCarthyism is back in the form of Kevin McCarthyism, which is not just a devotion to the Trump lies about the election but a devotion to lying itself, about everything, including January 6th.
The Republican Senate is now filled with McCarthys. It is filled with Republicans who do not care what happened on January 6th. Republican Senators supporting Mitch McConnell's lie of what happened on January 6th, they're saying it's not worth investigating. That's what most Republican Senators are saying. That's Mitch McConnell's lie, January 6th, not worth investigating. Mitch McConnell asked Republicans to vote against the commission as a personal favor to him. A personal favor is what he called it. Now, that is very rarely done by senate leaders, calling it in as a personal favor, and it is never done on serious votes, on important votes like this.
Earlier this week West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said that he was sure that there were ten good, solid patriots on the Republican side of the senate who would vote for the commission, and that's what he called them, good, solid patriots. Joe Manchin pleaded with Republicans privately and publicly, and earlier today Joe Manchin released an unusually harsh statement, for him, about Mitch McConnell, saying, “there is no excuse for any Republican to vote against the commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for. Mitch McConnell has made this his political position, thinking it will help his 2022 elections. They do not believe the truth will set you free, so they continue to live in fear.”
