The same network whose reporter was caught stalking the Kyle Rittenhouse case jury yesterday, behaved in the same abominable fashion today after the jury didn’t rule the way they wanted them to.
In the hours after the jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on Friday of all the criminal charges the prosecution leveled against him, MSNBC threw a pity party of sorts by inviting radical activists on-air to disparage the jury, judge and Rittenhouse as evidence the country was determined to protect “white supremacist” “terrorists.”
During the 3:00 p.m. Eastern hour with host Hallie Jackson, she brought in Black Lives Matter activist and MSNBC analyst Brittany Packnett Cunningham, who scoffed at Rittenhouse’s tears as the verdict was being read, and called him a white vigilante terrorist [click "expand"]:
[A]nd it shouldn't be the focus of the conversation, because ultimately, we are at a place where figuring out whether or not somebody is crying legitimately or not is distracting us from the kind of terror we're experiencing all across this country. I do believe that the act of picking up an AR-15, getting a ride to Kenosha and standing out there to supposedly defend property is all about terrorizing people into operating in a certain social order.
And the conclusions that we got from this particular verdict, the actions of this judge, the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, and to be clear, the aggregate understanding that we get from these Zimmerman style verdicts, that aggregate message is two-fold. One, it is to tell the current and future Kyle Rittenhouses of the world that they can engage in white vigilantism and be let off for it, be defended and protected, for perpetuating white supremacy. And the rest of us of any background and any color, that want to stand in the way of that white supremacy are at risk and we should be warned. That is the only message that I'm getting, tears or not.
While no one at MSNBC flinched at this extreme rhetoric smearing Rittenhouse, the MSNBC host repeatedly whitewashed rioters who tried to burn down Kenosha.
“[T]he jury finding Kyle Rittenhouse should be acquitted on all charges for shooting and killing two people and seriously hurting somebody else during that racial justice demonstrations in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year,” she began the show saying.
While talking to Cunningham, Jackson again sympathized with violent rioters rioting over Jacob Blake as the victims in all of this: “And you make the point, and I know you've made it, Brittany, that the only reason why Kyle Rittenhouse, the only reason why these racial demonstration -- racial justice protests were happening in the first place is because of what happened to Jacob Blake.”
Yes, MSNBC is taking sides with rioters who were upset police shot the same Jacob Blake who pulled a knife on them after being tased for evading arrest for alleged sexual assault and domestic violence.
The BLM activist and MSNBCer agreed that white supremacy was really what this case was about:
But Kyle Rittenhouse's entitlement to pick up that AR-15 would not have been triggered had the police not once again wantonly shown disregard for black life. The only reason why these protests were happening, the only reason why Kyle Rittenhouse got in that car was because Jacob Blake was shot. In a long run of a series of Americans and in particular, Americans of color and black Americans, who continue to be disrespected and shot and sometimes killed by law enforcement...
The rhetoric got even more heated just a few hours later as Packnett-Cunningham returned for The Beat with Ari Melber, but this time, she appeared alongside fellow race-baiter Brittney Cooper, a MSNBC regular and Rutgers University professor. Recently, Cooper gleefully called for “taking out” all white people and celebrated the idea of their race’s demise. But instead of being barred from the media, she’s invited back on MSNBC to talk about of all things, racism and terrorism.
This time, Packnett-Cunningham really went off the rails, comparing Rittenhouse to the KKK, saying he was engaging in white terrorism by going to Kenosha to protect a business and deliver aid:
I have been seeing today a lot of people using that cover to say well, self defense is not white supremacy. You’re right, self defense on its face is not white supremacy. But traveling across state lines with an AR-15 to intimidate people? Is absolutely white supremacy. We know what this is right? He traveled to where black people and our allies protested for dignity of life. Because he took issue with that, he decided to grab an assault rifle, and now two people are dead, one is permanently disabled. Let's be clear. That's not property damage. That's death and dismemberment. Black people and anybody who knows American history in this country know what white domestic terrorism looks like. Its function is to intimidate.
When it was the professor’s turn to talk, she sneered at the “white boy” who “terrorized people that were actually, you know, using their constitutional right to protest.” Forgetting what century she was in, she condemned whites to having to choose which side of the Civil War they’d be on:
“This is also white America's reckoning with which version of whiteness is it going to choose, is it going to choose to be in the legacy of the confederacy that is about oppressing people, or is it going to choose whiteness in the legacy of the Union,” she demanded.
Cooper really leaned into the racist, extremist language, telling their viewers they should fear being killed by white supremacists: “If you are on the side of black life, on the side of people of color, on the side of a narrative of American progress, and more inclusive democracy, then your life is expendable.”
Because MSNBC can’t stop lying about this trial, Cooper kept up the deception by brazenly lying about Rittenhouse’s defense:
Today what we were told was that white self defense trumps everybody else's sense of safety and protection in the streets, even when white folks are the folks carrying the gun and they are under no threat, as Kyle Rittenhouse admitted himself. He was not threatened. He didn't think there was a threat. He came there to intimidate and was allowed to do so.
Their fellow guest backed up her nasty lies. “All of us are being subjugated to the defense of white supremacy and Kyle Rittenhouse's feelings,” she sneered.
MSNBC’s hatefest on The Beat was sponsored by BMW, whom you can contact at the Conservatives Fight Back page linked.
Read transcript portions below:
MSNBC's Hallie Jackson Reports
11/19/21
3:00 p.m. EasternHALLIE JACKSON: [T]he jury finding Kyle Rittenhouse should be acquitted on all charges for shooting and killing two people and seriously hurting somebody else during that racial justice demonstrations in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. The defense had said Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense and the jury has agreed.
(....)
3:08 p.m. Eastern
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM: You know, I don't really actually think whether or not the tears were legitimate or not. The question is whether or not they mattered. There were two lives that were lost and another person that was injured. There was an entire community that was terrorized. So whether or not the person who pulled that trigger had tears to show afterwards really for me,frankly, is not the point. And it shouldn't be the focus of the conversation, because ultimately, we are at a place where figuring out whether or not somebody is crying legitimately or not is distracting us from the kind of terror we're experiencing all across this country. I do believe that the act of picking up an AR-15, getting a ride to Kenosha and standing out there to supposedly defend property is all about terrorizing people into operating in a certain social order.
And the conclusions that we got from this particular verdict, the actions of this judge, the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, and to be clear, the aggregate understanding that we get from these Zimmerman style verdicts, that aggregate message is two-fold. One, it is to tell the current and future Kyle Rittenhouses of the world that they can engage in white vigilantism and be let off for it, be defended and protected, for perpetuating white supremacy. And the rest of us of any background and any color, that want to stand in the way of that white supremacy are at risk and we should be warned. That is the only message that I'm getting, tears or not.
HALLIE JACKSON: And you make the point, and I know you've made it, Brittany, that the only reason why Kyle Rittenhouse, the only reason why these racial demonstration -- racial justice protests were happening in the first place is because of what happened to Jacob Blake.
PACKNETT-CUNNINGHAM: That's right. I fear the defenders of Kyle Rittenhouse speaking all the time about the idea of self-defense. But Kyle Rittenhouse's entitlement to pick up that AR-15 would not have been triggered had the police not once again wantonly shown disregard for black life. The only reason why these protests were happening, the only reason why Kyle Rittenhouse got in that car was because Jacob Blake was shot. In a long run of a series of Americans and in particular, Americans of color and black Americans, who continue to be disrespected and shot and sometimes killed by law enforcement. So we want to keep talking about the symptoms, instead of talking about the cause. Because talking about the cause would, of course, put an entire culture of white supremacy, that white privilege is derived from, on trial, and frankly, that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. So they would much rather stand up for Kyle Rittenhouse than stand against the things that make them uncomfortable.
------------------------------
MSNBC's The Beat with Ari Melber
11/19/21
6:08 p.m. EasternARI MELBER: [W]hen there are protests, people exercising constitutional rights, they're met with violence like these two in Kenosha, killed. Today's acquittal would appear to co-sign that violence. Two people dead from Rittenhouse's rifle. They're not coming back. Their victims’ families are speaking out today after the verdict. It is a new test tonight going forward with this ruling that allows this kind of vigilanteism in these two killings. The courts are one place these dilemmas are tested, by juries of our peers we are told, there's a legal process to try to ensure that, we respect jury decisions and rule of law. They're not the only place to test this. We have been living through a reassessment of recent history, with some people saying it's always been this way, it’s time to change. Other people saying it is okay, there's nothing wrong, and a kind of a middle group we saw through data and other indications during at least the BLM summer protests saying oh, maybe it is worse than they thought or look at the facts or it is time for listening and learning.
But listening and learning only takes us so far. People are living through these consequences, at a time where extremism and political violence and racism is very much more in the open, always been here, but way more in the open.
(....)
6:10 p.m. Eastern
PACKNETT-CUNNINGHAM: Oh, goodness, where to begin to be honest. The co-signing of the idea that this was self defense is really by design, right?
We watched the judge set this up from the very beginning and of course that argument of self defense was both to protect Kyle Rittenhouse but it was also to get his supporters and people who think like him a lot of cover. I have been seeing today a lot of people using that cover to say well, self defense is not white supremacy. You’re right, self defense on its face is not white supremacy. But traveling across state lines with an AR-15 to intimidate people? Is absolutely white supremacy. We know what this is right? He traveled to where black people and our allies protested for dignity of life. Because he took issue with that, he decided to grab an assault rifle,and now two people are dead, one is permanently disabled. Let's be clear. That's not property damage. That's death and dismemberment. Black people and anybody who knows American history in this country know what white domestic terrorism looks like. Its function is to intimidate. When Klu Klux Klanners burned crosses, it wasn't to keep warm, it was to intimidate everyone who saw the flames mild away, when white armed men marched in Charlottesville, it was not a family reunion, it was to strike fear in the hearts of anybody that wouldn't bend to their dominance. So make no mistake what Kyle Rittenhouse was doing there, he was the aggressor. Make no mistake what the officers that let him walk by with the AR-15 visible wanting to communicate to the rest of us, make no mistake what co-signing of self defense means. Make no mistake about what the judge was saying when he thumped his nose at any sense of fairness or lack of bias in that courtroom. This is about making sure that white supremacy maintains its cover to terrorize and intimidate the rest of us.
COOPER: The depth of my rage today are almost uncontainable. I don't know how much brazen hypocrisy we're supposed to take in the name of the law. We live in a country that said slavery and lynching that said segregation was legal. Today we're being asked to say it is legal and respect the rule of law because a white boy deputized himself, went out, terrorized people that were actually, you know, using their constitutional right to protest. But there's another thing to say about this. This is also white America's reckoning with which version of whiteness is it going to choose, is it going to choose to be in the legacy of the confederacy that is about oppressing people, or is it going to choose whiteness in the legacy of the union, about saying there are principles greater than the idea that we get to subjugate people. So when folks say this can't be about racism because the victims are white, no. There have always been white victims of white supremacy.
White allies... This is a way to discipline white allies the rights they're allowing to deputize themselves in the streets, brazenly flour anything that appears to be like justice, run amuck, we will kill anybody that gets in our way, in that way race doesn't matter. If you are on the side of black life, on the side of people of color, on the side of a narrative of American progress, and more inclusive democracy, then your life is expendable. We should be very concerned as a country. ...Today what we were told was that white self defense trumps everybody else's sense of safety and protection in the streets, even when white folks are the folks carrying the gun and they are under no threat, as Kyle Rittenhouse admitted himself. He was not threatened. He didn't think there was a threat. He came there to intimidate and was allowed to do so.
(....)
6:15 p.m. Eastern
PACKNETT-CUNNINGHAM: I mean, I just think what Dr. Cooper is saying is so critically important. All of us are being subjugated to defense of white supremacy and Kyle Rittenhouse's feelings. We talked about his tears ad nauseum. We will talk about the tears displayed today more. This country is more concerned with feelings of a white man that went out with an AR-15 than they are about the rest of us meant to be intimidated.
