Following Newt Gingrich’s second-place performance in the Florida Republican Primary, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Reverend Al Sharpton blasted the candidate for supposedly using ‘dog whistle’ racial codes in his concession speech.
During his speech, Gingrich laid out criticism of President Obama’s policy failures while in office. He referenced the president’s obsession with soaking up media adulation, particularly a recent stab at singing a line from an Al Green song at a fundraiser, rather than actually doing his job as president.
Maddow and Sharpton went off the deep end, accusing Gingrich of characterizing the president in a way that almost calls out to ‘minstrelsy’ simply because Gingrich said the President needs to lead the nation, not settle for being "entertainer-in-chief." This vicious attack on Gingrich by Maddow and Sharpton is a near-daily talking point for MSNBC , which looks to tar Gingrich particularly and the GOP primary electorate at-large as motivated by racial hatred for President Obama.
Day after day, MSNBC’s "reporters" sink to cynical new lows, embarrassing themselves and their entire network by shouting racism at every criticism of the president, continuing do diminish their already minuscule credibility as a "news organization."
Below is the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s primary coverage:
MSNBC Florida Primary
01/31/2012
10:13 pm
Rachel Maddow: So let me, let me say something provocative. But I think it’s true. Is that why we keep getting racial allusions from Newt Gingrich? Newt Gingrich tonight, went, brought back the food stamps president thing. He’s been doing that, bringing that up in Florida. And then tonight he went to President Obama ought to stop singing, ought to stop being the entertainer-in-chief. Essentially caricaturing him in a way that almost calls out to minstrelsy.
Al Sharpton: Yeah
Maddow: I mean Reverend Al.
Al Sharpton: I think you’re right which is why I brought Herman Cain back in the conversation because he had no problem with Mr. Cain. But I think that he is clearly going after what he considers a Southern mentality, with racial allusions, and always wrapped around when he refers to the president, when he talks about this food stamp stuff. These are no -- newt Gingrich is many things, stupid is not one of them. He knows exactly what he's saying, he knows exactly who he's playing to, and when you look at that map, he knows as you deal with that northern border of Florida, which is Southern Alabama and all of those states where the’re headed, he knows what he’s, what card he's playing, and he also knows this, even if he can't run Steve, a campaign that is sharp enough to take the nomination, the worst thing that could happen to Mitt Romney is he become the leader of that conservative bloc that Mitt Romney's got to deal with in Tampa at that convention. I think that, that I agree with Chris, the only guy would be happy with that would be Ron Paul. Cuz, can you imagine if he walks in that convention as the leader of the conservative wing of the Republican Party what those negotiations are going to look like? Cuz Newt Gingrich is not the kind of guy you want to negotiate with.
