In a stunning example of irony and lack of self awareness, MSNBC anchor Brian Williams made the laughably hypocritical claim that West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin “seems to live in a world of his own making and his own imagination.”
In part of MSNBC’s weeklong obsession with Joe Manchin and his refusal to destroy the United States Senate by removing the filibuster, Williams and two of his guests TheGrio contributor Jason Johnson and Real Clear Politics Associate Editor A.B. Stoddard discussed the Democratic Party’s inability to nationalize our nation’s election system by blaming Joe Manchin.
When Williams went to Stoddard he made this bizarre claim: “He seems to live in a world between Wheeling, West Virginia and a Frank Capra movie of, perhaps of his own making and his own imagination.”
This is coming from the guy who has lied numerous times about events that have happened to him that either never happened or occurred in his absence despite his claim of being there.
In February 2015, NBC suspended then NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and opened an investigation over ‘six separate incidents’ of him lying and fabricating stories.
These incidents include Williams lying about riding in a Chinook helicopter during the US military invasion of Iraq, witnessing a dead body floating down a street in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and him receiving part of the helicopter that crashed during the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Williams also lied about being at the Berlin Wall the day it was torn down, despite the fact he didn’t arrive on the scene until the next day.
This is why Williams was demoted to MSNBC where all the failures in media go to work. Brian Williams is the one who lives in a world of his own making and imagination, not Joe Manchin.
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Read the transcript below by clicking "expand:
The 11th Hour With Brian Williams
6/8/2021
11:27PM
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Jason Johnson, your signal is back. Enough so that I see you shaking your head no.
JASON JOHNSON: Yeah. Look. Let's be honest, let’s not pretend that Manchin's opposition is based on some deep philosophical concern about what's actually the content of either piece of legislation. Remember, he was an original co-sponsor of the For The People Act. He’s going back on something that he co-sponsored. He says that he’s perfectly ok with the John Lewis Civil Rights Act, and that’s the one that pretty much establishes a return of some variation of preclearance which would stop what happened in Georgia, which would provide ways for the federal government to get involved. Joe Manchin doesn't care about reelection, Joe Manchin doesn’t care about minority voting rights, Joe Manchin doesn't care about his legacy. This is a power move on his behalf. If he really cared, if this was actually an issue of changes that needed to be made at either legislation guess what? He could say that. Joe Manchin tomorrow could, you know, reenact that scene from "Dave", get in an office with Joe Biden over the weekend, order some pizza and rewrite the darn bill to his liking so he could pass it. He’s not doing that because he’s not interested in either piece of legislation being passed. So we have to dispel with this narrative that this is a technical issue, as opposed to a larger philosophical issue. He is a guy who knows he is not going to get re-elected, he knows he’s getting a lot of pressure from the Koch brothers, he knows this also has nothing to do with what West Virginia voters want, because they're in favor of most of these pieces of legislation, this is about his own power, and his own sort of ideological flex before he eventually rides off into the sunset because he won't be reelected in 2024.
WILLIAMS: Okay, AB let's go one deeper on this. It does seem to a lot of people that a couple things are true. A: Joe Manchin is loving this. B: He seems to live in a world between Wheeling, West Virginia and a Frank Capra movie of, perhaps of his own making and his own imagination. And what about the old standards of party cohesion and party discipline? We also know this is a big time for West Virginia between him and Capito. Home to .5 of one percent of the US population. They're punching above their weight these days.
AB STODDARD: Ah, you know what? Very smart electoral analysts last fall told us that the Democrats were going to pick up between three and five senate seats, maybe eight to ten. They do not control the senate. They preside over the senate. It is a fifty fifty senate that would give McConnell the majority position if Manchin were to switch parties. Again, the focus on Joe Manchin and his inconsistencies, all of it might be true, but it is a waste of time because other members of the caucus refuse to support S1 in its current draft. Like Senator King. So you have to get to the point where you have a bill that could actually pass the Democratic Caucus before you start looking for the ten Republicans. My point, I think that Congressman Clyburn is right. Tell Joe Manchin if you really take this seriously tell us exactly what on substance you would change. Get working on it. This is a discussion I believe should’ve happened months ago. They should have been behind the scenes urging him because he has all these relationships and works across the aisle to be putting something together so they wouldn’t be in this position the first week in June when they are literally running out of time, about 90 days until they’re at a fiscal cliff, and then primary campaigns begin. You're in a campaign year and all legislating will stop. This was foreseeable that with better planning I truly believe they could’ve avoided making this all about Joe Manchin.
