On the Friday, April 18, PoliticsNation, Al Sharpton hyped President Obama's dubious claims about the Affordable Care Act's alleged success as the MSNBC host asserted that the program has "exceeded expectations," and that Republicans are suffering from a "hangover" in denying its success.
Sharpton claimed to see "lies, fearmongering and paranoia" from the GOP, and brought up questionable claims dating back to 2010 that Tea Party members spat on Democratic members of Congress during a protest. Sharpton began:
Today, Republicans woke up after the day of historic news about the President's health care law, but they're still struggling to wake up to reality. Eight million people have signed up for the plans on the exchanges, and now comes the denial.
After clips of conservatives predicting ObamaCare would be a failure, Sharpton added:
I guess eight million people getting health care is a failure. But maybe this shouldn't be surprising because this party has spent five years attacking the law. For five years, we've seen lies, fearmongering, and paranoia.
The MSNBC host concluded:
It didn't collapse. It exceeded expectations, but when your party's sole focus has been to destroy a law, there's no wonder they're in denial today. This is a political hangover that will be tough to shake.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, April 18, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:
AL SHARPTON: Tonight's lead, the GOP's health care hangover. Today, Republicans woke up after the day of historic news about the President's health care law, but they're still struggling to wake up to reality. Eight million people have signed up for the plans on the exchanges, and now comes the denial.
Speaker Boehner said the President is obscuring the full impact of the law. The third ranking Republican in the House said, quote, "Republicans cannot and will not accept this law. And on the right-wing airwaves, conservatives are in full spin mode.
(CLIPS OF VARIOUS CONSERVATIVES CRITICIZING OBAMACARE)
Destined for failure? I guess eight million people getting health care is a failure. But maybe this shouldn't be surprising because this party has spent five years attacking the law. For five years, we've seen lies, fearmongering, and paranoia. In 2009, then-Senator Jim DeMint said the health care law could be the President's Waterloo, that it would break this President. It didn't.
We saw Tea Party rallies attacking the President for socialism. In 2010, there were massive Tea Party protests as a final vote in the House approached.
CLIP OF PROTESTERS CHANTING: Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill!
Democrats on the way to vote were allegedly heckled and spat on. Then it became law, and then came the scare tactics. Remember the death panels.
FORMER GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN (R-AK): -making our health care premiums enormously unsustainably more expensive with death panels, to boot.
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): Let us repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens.
SHARPTON: Well, that literally never happened. Then they moved to a new talking point: It would kill jobs.
(CLIPS OF SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER, LOUISIANA GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL, AND TEXAS SENATOR TED CRUZ)
And the economy keeps adding jobs. So then they warned the law would kill itself, collapse under its own weight.
(CLIPS OF CONSERVATIVES SAYING OBAMACARE WOULD COLLAPSE)
It didn't collapse. It exceeded expectations, but when your party's sole focus has been to destroy a law, there's no wonder they're in denial today. This is a political hangover that will be tough to shake.
