For Friday’s installment of The 11th Hour on MSNBC, host Stephanie Ruhle led a panel discussion on the first week of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Bloomberg Opinion’s senior executive editor Tim O’Brien reacted by labeling the GOP a bunch of racist “juvenile delinquents.” Meanwhile, NBC education correspondent Rehema Ellis lamented the state of education in the country due to the pandemic, but couldn’t tie that back to the shutdowns, teacher unions, or Democrats.
Asked by Ruhle what he thought of “week one of the GOP controlling the House,” O’Brien labeled the week “a bonfire” that is “not going to get any better.”
O’Brien also described the GOP as “inept and of course they have bad intentions, but they’re doing what they want to do, which is to defenestrate the federal government, to remove it as a constructive force in American life and this has been going on for a decade.”
How one could throw the government out of a window was not elaborated on as O’Brien continued his ramblings:
They’ll follow that path anyway they can, they’ll either defund the government, they’ll throw sand into the wheels of normal functioning of the federal government, and they’re getting there and they’re incredibly inept. They have sensationalized racism and bigotry. They have worn this anti-institutionalism on their sleeves, but it's not just because they're juvenile delinquents, even though they are juvenile delinquents. It's because what they want to do is delegitimize the government.
As for the next two years, O’Brien claimed “I think what we’re going to have to watch unfold now is this savaging of the foundations of normative and important and rational processes that every American relies on.”
Turning to Ellis, Ruhle asked if O’Brien was correct, “So, that's what we're going to get for the next two years, Rehema, this destructive show?”
Ellis changed the topic from House Republicans to the state of education, “There are people who hope not, but the reality is, reality bites... We ranked 22 out of 27 developed countries in education, yet we think we're at the top. We’re down near the bottom.”
Nothing in Ellis’s response had anything to do with Republicans as she continued to paint a picture of the sorry state of American education, “Why is that happening? We had a Nation's Report Card come out that said our kids are not doing well, and the pandemic devastated kids. We lost something 20 to 30 years’ worth of education progress in just two years.”
When Republican policies are the subject of discussion, Republicans get the heat. When policies defended by the left are, Democrats escape scrutiny for the generic “we”:
In one city, one great city in America, children lost 50% in the fourth grade of math proficiency. What does that mean? Only three percent of fourth graders in the great city of Detroit are proficient in math, and what was it before the pandemic? It was six percent. ...
But here's where people are talking about it, who lives in Detroit? In the city of Detroit, who's going to those public schools? Mostly black and brown children who have been underserved for decades, didn't just happen. Why isn't anybody talking about what's happening to them? Should they be continued to be left behind?
Perhaps because it is hard to blame the state of education in Detroit on Republicans.
This segment was sponsored by Progressive.
Here is a transcript for the January 13 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
1/13/2022
11:32 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Tim, I turn to you first. Week one of the GOP controlling the House. How do you think it went?
TIM O’BRIEN: It's a bonfire and it's not going to get any better, but I don't think, of course they're inept, and of course they have bad intentions, but they’re doing what they want to do, which is to defenestrate the federal government, to remove it as a constructive force in American life and this has been going on for a decade. They’ll follow that path anyway they can, they’ll either defund the government, they’ll throw sand into the wheels of normal functioning of the federal government, and they’re getting there and they’re incredibly inept. They have sensationalized racism and bigotry. They have worn this anti-institutionalism on their sleeves, but it's not just because they're juvenile delinquents, even though they are juvenile delinquents. It's because what they want to do is delegitimize the government and there are so many things the federal government does that is just process and structure in our daily lives that we all rely on it for and I think what we’re going to have to watch unfold now is this savaging of the foundations of normative and important and rational processes that every American relies on.
RUHLE: So, that's what we're going to get for the next two years, Rehema, this destructive show?
REHEMA ELLIS: There are people who hope not, but the reality is, reality bites. Here we are and there are so many people who I know who are in the education wheelhouse, and they're embarrassed and they're disappointed and they're sad because there's a lot to talk about. We ranked 22 out of 27 developed countries in education, yet we think we're at the top. We’re down near the bottom.
Why is that happening? We had a Nation's Report Card come out that said our kids are not doing well, and the pandemic devastated kids. We lost something 20 to 30 years’ worth of education progress in just two years. We're about to, next year, lose $124 billion that the federal government had appropriate for recovery for the pandemic.
It's going to be gone, but experts say we're going to need billions more, and more years, to bring our kids back up to where they need to be, and where are they? So, just this one thing, we have, in one city, one great city in America, children lost 50% in the fourth grade of math proficiency.
What does that mean? Only three percent of fourth graders in the great city of Detroit are proficient in math, and what was it before the pandemic? It was six percent. How are we going to be a great nation going forward if one of the major cities of this country, the children are so ill prepared.
But here's where people are talking about it, who lives in Detroit? In the city of Detroit, who's going to those public schools? Mostly black and brown children who have been underserved for decades, didn't just happen. Why isn't anybody talking about what's happening to them? Should they be continued to be left behind?
