MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell found a new and even sillier reason to label Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “controversial” on her Thursday show: he dared to disagree with President Biden’s assessment of Israelis Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed court reforms while he was visiting the country.
DeSantis’s position on Netanyahu’s proposals is one of neutrality as national correspondent Gabe Gutierrez teed up a clip of him in Jerusalem claiming that “My view is that the United States should be a strong ally to Israel, but we should not butt into their internal affairs. That's a debate that's happening here. It's obviously raging, but honestly, it seems to me as an outsider coming in, that, at the end of the day, it's healthy to flush this stuff out.”
Gutierrez wrapped up his initial report of DeSantis’s Israel trip by reporting that the United Kingdom is his next destination. The British Supreme Court cannot strike down acts of Parliament, a fact Netanyahu has cited to call out the doom-mongers, but Mitchell wasn’t interest in that:
Yeah, and what he said though is controversial. It's contradictory to what the administration, in an unusual public split with Israel, has been saying about, you know, the threat that many people perceive to Israel's democracy and to any future for Palestinian negotiations, if they proceed as they -- as he has said they will after a pause.
If DeSantis is controversial for disagreeing with Biden, does that make Biden controversial for not only disagreeing with DeSantis, but inserting himself in another democracy’s internal debates? Furthermore, by “many people,” Mitchell simply means Netanyahu’s critics.
Gutierrez then inserted himself back into the discussion and after reporting that he tried and failed to get Netanyahu to voice a preference between DeSantis and Donald Trump made the fallacious argument that by noting opposing, he is allying with him, “this comes after former, excuse me, after current President Biden tried to say that Benjamin Netanyahu should walk away from these proposed reforms. So again, Governor DeSantis trying to ally himself with the Israelis, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he rounds out this overseas trip, Andrea.”
Alternatively, DeSantis is being honest when he says that the United States should be allies with Israel regardless of what their supreme court looks like and who they chose to be their prime minister. However, this simple point was incomprehensible to Mitchell, “And to Charlie Sykes, you've got DeSantis taking the position that Donald Trump, that Mike Pompeo, many conservative Republicans have taken in siding with Netanyahu, but this is at a point when Netanyahu is controversial even with many Republican Jewish-Americans who think that he’s gone too far.”
The nominally conservative Sykes was the third member of the segment to fail to understand how somebody could believe the Israeli Supreme Court is of no consequence to American foreign policy. For Sykes, it has to be about playing to the GOP base, “Well, it is interesting that Ron DeSantis is taking this trip to bolster his foreign policy credentials and yet at every stop I think what he exposes is his naiveté and his willingness to do that paint by numbers politics what is the right-wing base wanting to hear.”
Sykes would go on to add that DeSantis’s fight with Disney show he is “not genius politics,” but based off the preceding segment nobody on MSNBC should be questioning anybody else’s intellect.
This segment was sponsored by Volkswagen.
Here is a transcript for the April 27 show:
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
4/27/2023
12:09 PM ET
GABE GUTIERREZ: He called the suit political and he also tried to line himself, as you said, with Israel. I asked him about the proposed judicial reforms that have been so controversial here in Israel and here's how he responded to that question, Andrea.
RON DESANTIS: My view is that the United States should be a strong ally to Israel, but we should not butt into their internal affairs. That's a debate that's happening here. It's obviously raging, but honestly, it seems to me as an outsider coming in, that, at the end of the day, it's healthy to flush this stuff out.
GUTIERREZ: And Andrea, he spoke to a very friendly crowd here this morning and also used the opportunity to sign this anti-hate legislation that the Florida legislature passed just yesterday making it a felony to intimidate or harass anybody based on their race or ethnicity or religion back in Florida, but again, Governor DeSantis using this trip, trying to bolster his international credentials. After he leaves Israel, he is now heading to the U.K to round out the week, Andrea.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Yeah, and what he said though is controversial. It's contradictory to what the administration, in an unusual public split with Israel, has been saying about, you know, the threat that many people perceive to Israel's democracy and to any future for Palestinian negotiations, if they proceed as they -- as he has said they will after a pause.
GUTIERREZ: And Andrea, you know, he basically tried to echo what Benjamin Netanyahu told me just a short time ago and we should mention that the prime minister spoke with Governor DeSantis this afternoon. He said that he called him a friend. I tried to press him on whether he would prefer a Ron DeSantis administration versus a Donald Trump administration, of course, Netanyahu, a staunch ally of former President Trump, but he wouldn’t go there, he tried, you know, say he didn’t not want to wade into U.S. elections at this point, but Governor DeSantis trying to walk the fine line saying the U.S. should steer clear of getting involved in Israeli politics, of course, this comes after former, excuse me, after current President Biden tried to say that Benjamin Netanyahu should walk away from these proposed reforms. So again, Governor DeSantis trying to ally himself with the Israelis, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he rounds out this overseas trip, Andrea.
MITCHELL: And to Charlie Sykes, you've got DeSantis taking the position that Donald Trump, that Mike Pompeo, many conservative Republicans have taken in siding with Netanyahu, but this is at a point when Netanyahu is controversial even with many Republican Jewish-Americans who think that he’s gone too far.
CHARLIE SYKES: Well, it is interesting that Ron DeSantis is taking this trip to bolster his foreign policy credentials and yet at every stop I think what he exposes is his naiveté and his willingness to do that paint by numbers politics what is the right-wing base wanting to hear and that's what he says and of course, as the report makes clear, he continues to be shadowed by his -- the quagmire that he’s gotten himself into with Walt Disney, which is, let’s just say, not genius politics and is not playing out well for him.
