MSNBC’s unwavering devotion to President Obama amidst the immigration crisis of his own making was made prominently clear on the July 16 edition of Ronan Farrow Daily. The Lean Forward host actually misreported an ABC News Washington Post poll which determined that 58% of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of immigration while only 33% approve of his policies. Farrow claimed, “there's a new poll out from ABC News and Washington Post saying that a majority of Americans agree with the president pushing on Congress on this.”
Seizing on the falsehood, Farrow immediately placed the blame on the Right, asking Republican strategist John Feehery, “should those numbers send a strong signal to Republican congressmen at this point, maybe it's time to change tracks?” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]
The MSNBC host corrected himself at the end of the segment, and attempted to laugh off his embarrassing mistake stating,
Just a quick correction there actually, the ABC News Washington Post poll says the majority of the Americans disapprove of the president's behavior, so that may send an equally strong signal to those Republican congressmen that we’re talking about.
Nice save, Ronan. Maybe next time boy genius should focus less on defending the president and more on reading his teleprompter.
See transcript below:
MSNBC
Ronan Farrow Daily
July 16, 2014
1:09 p.m. Eastern
3 minutes and 32 seconds
RONAN FARROW: And look John, people don't want to take these young people in, but they want more action on this. There's a new poll out from ABC News and Washington Post saying that a majority of Americans agree with the president pushing on Congress on this. Should those numbers send a strong signal to Republican congressmen at this point, maybe it's time to change tracks?
JOHN FEEHERY: I would hope so. I've been a proponent of fixing the broken immigration system which I think would lead to brisker economic growth, safercommunities. And if we get these people out of the shadows and get them into a status where they can actually fully participate in the economy, you know, we can have a stronger economy. I agree with those sentiments. But at the same time this border crisis doesn't help us get to a fixed immigration system. It makes the situation even worse, the crisis even worse. So we've got to be figure out a way to bifurcate the two issues, deal with this crisis but also fix the broken immigration system.
FARROW: Ali, in the absence of long-term reform and the presence of so much push back on taking these young people in, we are seeing a little bit of an emergence of the counter movement, people on both sides of the aisle saying “actually, maybe it’s time to be more compassionate,” Glenn Beck of all people, obviously, in recent weeks and also now most recently, Pope Francis coming out and saying this is a time for compassion. Do you think we could see the pendulum of public opinion swinging the other way?
ALI NOORANI: Well, there’s two things. On Monday, in fact, I was in Mexico City, there was a meeting convened by the Mexican government and the Holy See. And in that conversation you also had representation from the Central American countries. So on Monday it was really interesting being part of a meeting that had representation from sending countries, the transit country of Mexico, as well as the Pope. And all of them were talking about, number one, we have a responsibility to secure our borders and make sure that people are treated fairly. Second, we want to make sure these children are treated compassionately. The pendulum of political momentum is a really good question. You know, immigration is no longer an issue of momentum and a pendulum swinging back and forth. It's really become a wrecking ball that one day will damage the political building of the Democrats and the second day damage the building of the Republicans. So immigration reform, until it's fixed, is a wrecking ball really tearing at the fabric of our country.
FARROW: Thank you, Ali. Just a quick correction there actually, the ABC News Washington Post poll says the majority of the Americans disapprove of the president's behavior, so that may send an equally strong signal to those Republican congressmen that we’re talking about. Thank you so much, both of you.
