On Friday's CNN NewsNight, host Abby Phillip gave a forum to far-left film maker Michael Moore to comment on the presidential race, leading him to accuse the Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza, preposterously alleging that the Palestinians are being killed because of the "color of their skin."
He also rejoiced in the NRA's legal problems and predicted that gun control activists would be more successful now that the pro-gun group with "blood on the hands" has been weakened.
As the segment began with Moore -- a lifelong resident of Michigan -- giving his thoughts about President Joe Biden's chances of winning the important swing state, the liberal film maker argued that President Biden's support for the war in Gaza could hurt him with some of his supporters.
Speculating about what he might say to the President, Moore suggested he was a bad Catholic for supporting the war: "If I had a chance to talk to Joe Biden, the first thing I'd want to ask him is, 'What -- do you still go to Mass? I mean, what's going on here? Why are you participating in something that's killing civilians and children and 30,000 now dead?'"
Even though the terrorist group Hamas has a history of blocking the Israeli military from delivering fuel to Gaza hospitals to power incubators, Moore invoked the issue and blamed Israel as he soon continued his analysis. And he ignored the Israeli military's history in past wars of minimizing the proportion of civilian deaths compared to the militaries of other countries.
Moore railed against right-leaning Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he continued:
...if Trump has any chance, it's that the decision that he's (Biden) made to embrace slaughter, carpet bombing, incubator -- babies in incubators dead because they cut off the electricity. On and on and on. And this is, I think, he -- Joe Biden somewhere confused the fact that of course the majority of Americans will do anything to protect our Jewish brothers and sisters no matter where they're at. And I would say a majority of Americans support Israel, and I would say that practically all of us want those hostages released right now. So -- but he somehow conflated that with "Bibi Netanyahu is some friend of mine, I'm here for you, I'm going to fly on the plane right away, come over there, give you a big hug, give you the thumbs up, do what you got to do," and it has caused a slaughter like nothing that we have ever seen.
Phillip brought up the possibility of "genocide" by Israel as she followed up: "Michael, will you describe what you're saying there? I mean, would you describe Israel's campaign in Gaza as a genocide?"
After initially seeming to hesitate to call it that, he did end up making the "genocide" smear against the Jewish nation and suggested Gaza residents are being targeted by the Israeli military because of their skin color:
I would say that anytime you single out a group of people, and you have what's called a mass guilt you impose on them simply because they are, in this case, Palestinian. And now they're just going to randomly and, to use another quote from one of Biden's fundraisers that got out that he said privately. He said this is indiscriminate bombing that's going on. "Indiscriminate bombing." That's right. That is exactly right. So when you indiscriminately bomb a group of people simply because of the color of their skin -- because of their religion -- because of their heritage or whatever. That is a form of genocide.
He then accused Netanyahu of using the war to protect himself from legal problems, calling it "so disgusting and so sick."
After a commercial break, Phillip brought up the legal finding against former NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre that he had mishandled the organization's money, cuing her liberal guest to rail against the conservative group's past defense of gun rights, and predicted more gun control wins in the future:
Transcript follows:
CNN NewsNight
February 23, 2004
10:14 p.m. Eastern
MICHAEL MOORE, FILM MAKER: If I had a chance to talk to Joe Biden, the first thing I'd want to ask him is, "What -- do you still go to mass? I mean, what's going on here? Why are you participating in something that's killing civilians and children and 30,000 now dead?" It's just -- but --
ABBY PHILLIP: Well, let me ask you about that, Michael. I do want to talk exactly about this issue because, you know, we have seen Michigan voters where you're from say that they're not going to vote for Biden because of how he's handled this war. I mean, they want to see change from Biden, but Biden is dealing with a foreign policy issue that is beyond this next election. Do you think that this dissatisfaction is going to hurt Biden significantly come November? Or will these voters change their mind when it's Biden against Donald Trump?
MOORE: Well, I don't think anybody who -- I mean, nobody I know certainly that voted for Biden three years ago -- almost four years ago -- has changed their mind and believe that they made a mistake and they're going to vote for Donald Trump. That's not going to happen. What's going to happen possibly and the danger to Biden here is that people -- and, remember, 70 percent of the electorate now is either women, people of color, or young people between the ages of 18 and 35. That's 70 percent of the voters. And to offend and upset a group that supported you back in 2020, especially young people.
I mean, you know, I've been saying this month that he's going to cost himself the election. He's going to, you know, if Trump has any chance, it's that the decision that he's (Biden) made to embrace slaughter, carpet bombing, incubator -- babies in incubators dead because they cut off the electricity. On and on and on. And this is, I think, he -- Joe Biden somewhere confused the fact that of course the majority of Americans will do anything to protect our Jewish brothers and sisters no matter where they're at. And I would say a majority of Americans support Israel, and I would say that practically all of us want those hostages released right now. So -- but he somehow conflated that with "Bibi Netanyahu is some friend of mine, I'm here for you, I'm going to fly on the plane right away, come over there, give you a big hug, give you the thumbs up, do what you got to do," and it has caused a slaughter like nothing that we have ever seen.
PHILLIP: Michael, will you describe what you're saying there? I mean, would you describe Israel's campaign in Gaza as a genocide?
MOORE: Well, you know, that word means different things to different people. I would -- I would say that anytime you single out a group of people, and you have what's called a mass guilt you impose on them simply because they are, in this case, Palestinian. And now they're just going to randomly and, to use another quote from one of Biden's fundraisers that got out that he said privately. He said this is indiscriminate bombing that's going on. "Indiscriminate bombing." That's right. That is exactly right. So when you indiscriminately bomb a group of people simply because of the color of their skin -- because of their religion -- because of their heritage or whatever. That is a form of genocide. And it's, you know, it pains me, and I think a lot of people to even have to use that because we grew up in the years right after World War II. I was born, I don't know, eight years plus after the Holocaust -- after the last camps were liberated. So that was in our heads as little kids.
And I think we all grew up with this understanding that this must never happen again and we must stand up for the Jewish people. For that to be turned and used by people who are -- in Netanyahu's case -- like Trump awaiting trial on various indictments -- felonious indictments -- fraud, bribery, etc. And then Netanyahu uses this as a way to avoid the criminality of his administration. It's so disgusting and so sick, and I -- look, most Israelis know this anyways. You've seen the polls -- 82 percent of Israelis want Netanyahu gone, you know. He did not protect them. That was his one most important job -- protect the people. Pulled the army back from the Gazan border, sent them off to the Lebanese border, sent them off to the West Bank, and how many people in their homes in their safe rooms shuttered, losing their mind because they're going to be killed any minute by the Hamas attackers?
(...)
10:25 p.m. Eastern
PHILLIP: Michael, tonight a jury found that the former NRA chief Wayne LaPierre, he's guilty of using the group's funds to finance a high-flying lifestyle and other corrupt practices. It's grift at the highest level. What's your reaction to what this means for the future of this organization?
MOORE: Well, I think they've been on the slow downhill now for some time. This is, you know, when you think about the blood on the hands of the NRA and their support over the years for allowing anybody to buy any gun at any time anywhere and to buy as many of them as they want where the majority of Americans don't agree with that. The whole country has changed their minds about this -- about the 2nd Amendment. They know that we the people are not going to tolerate this anymore -- 72 percent of Americans do not own a gun -- don't want to own a gun, you know. People in other countries think we're a nation of gun nuts, but the truth is we're not. It's just a few, and it's just a real small percentage that own a majority of those guns.
So what Wayne and his people did for so many years was to make sure that every time that there was a school shooting -- a Sandy Hook, a Parkland, whatever -- that they came right out and doubled and tripled down in support of you being able to carry any weapon you want anywhere. And I'm telling you, those days are over. It's only a matter of time, and I think myself and others who are continuing to work on this issue are going to see good results in the years ahead.
