One day after arguing with GOP Rep. Mike Lawler that American media did not rush to repeat Hamas propaganda in the manner of Baghdad Bob on the Gaza hospital explosions, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell joined Friday’s Chris Jansing Reports to claim that The Squad has “been very outspoken” on the issue of Gaza in the aftermath of that event. That’s a funny way of saying "lied."
As part of a rambling declaration on how the U.S. finds itself isolated on the issue of the war as a whole, Mitchell explained, “We should also point out that the reaction ever since the bombing in Gaza of the hospital on Tuesday has been global. You had the U.N. Security Council. France even calling for a pause in voting against the U.S. in a resolution that the U.S. ended up on Wednesday having to veto or Tuesday rather, and the U.N. Secretary General calling for cease fire in Egypt and going to the Rafah border, the European reaction, protests overseas—”
Hamas lied. The United States cannot make vital national security decisions involving allies based on the reaction others have to lies because that only incentivizes the liars to lie more. If Mitchell does not like being compared to Baghdad Bob, she should be using her time to call out those who repeated Hamas’s lies. Instead, she simply noted:
In the United States, divisions in Congress, not on whether Israel should go in but also on whether there should be a cease fire with the Democratic Party divided with some members, especially the Muslim-American Americans of Congress, particularly from Michigan, Minnesota, the few members of Congress and the Democratic Party who are Muslim and have been very outspoken.
Mitchell doesn’t even have the courage to mention Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar by name. Tlaib repeated the lie and even after it was debunked, refused to apologize. Omar issued a non-apology on Twitter, saying “We all have a responsibility to ensure information we are sharing is from credible sources and to acknowledge as new reports come in.”
Some people did not immediately rush to the internet to believe the word of a genocidal terrorist organization, so who is “we”?
If Republican members of Congress were spreading fake news about something of great importance, Mitchell would never describe them as being “very outspoken.” Instead, she would lament how the party doesn’t care about facts. The Squad, meanwhile, is held to a different standard.
Here is a transcript for the October 20 show:
MSNBC Chris Jansing Reports
10/20/2023
1:56 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: We should also point out that the reaction ever since the bombing in Gaza of the hospital on Tuesday has been global. You had the U.N. Security Council. France even calling for a pause in voting against the U.S. in a resolution that the U.S. ended up on Wednesday having to veto or Tuesday rather, and the U.N. Secretary General calling for cease fire in Egypt and going to the Rafah border, the European reaction, protests overseas, in the United States, divisions in Congress, not on whether Israel should go in but also on whether there should be a cease fire with the Democratic Party divided with some members, especially the Muslim-American Americans of Congress, particularly from Michigan, Minnesota, the few members of Congress and the Democratic Party who are Muslim and have been very outspoken.
