It appears as though MSNBC’s war on women agenda has found a new target, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The subject of this controversy comes from the liberal Mother Jones magazine, which obtained audio of a McConnell campaign meeting discussing a potential challenge from Ashley Judd for Senate and preparing a dossier on weaknesses she has as a candidate.
The liberal media, particularly MSNBC, have been busy using the leaked audio as an occasion to bludgeon McConnell, but MSNBC Live host Thomas Roberts took things a step further on his April 10 program by posing a question to his audience obviously devised as a call to the liberal actress to get back into the game and run for Senate in 2014 after all:
Was Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign office bugged or do they have a mole on their team? Lots of finger pointing over those secret strategy tapes making fun of actress Ashley Judd if she were to throw her hat in the ring and run against him. And that leads our question of the day for you. Should Ashley Judd reconsider running now that Mitch McConnell’s opposition playbook has been revealed?
Later on in the hour, Roberts brought on NBC News Political Producer Kasie Hunt to discuss the potential illegal bugging of McConnell’s campaign office. Roberts called McConnell’s comments, “brutally personal remarks” portraying Judd as a victim of a dastardly Republican.
Roberts then allowed Hunt to push the narrative, where she observed that, “critics have raised questions about whether it's appropriate for a political campaign to question their opponent's mental health.” By critics, Hunt and Roberts mean Democrats and liberals on MSNBC.
While Hunt does point out that no one knows how the audio was obtained, and possibly was obtained by a staffer recording the meeting, the recording, made without McConnnell's knowledge could potentially be a serious violation of federal law. Yet nowhere in the segment did Hunt nor Thomas seem concerned that McConnell’s privacy might have been violated. Hunt merely suggested that:
This is a pretty shrewd spin campaign at the very least from McConnell’s folks. Obviously we don't know the answers to that question, but so far folks haven't really been able to assure me that it wasn't a mole. That it wasn’t. There were about ten people in that strategy meeting, so it could have been any one of those ten people who did in fact record it and distribute it.
The "war on women" network is eager to cast veteran Hollywood actress as a damsel in distress, a do-gooder done imperiled by a dastardly villain. It's a cheesy melodrama to be sure, but one that the network hopes can resurrect Judd's run for federal office.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
April 10, 2013
11:42 a.m. EDT
THOMAS ROBERTS: And here's a big question for you, was Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign office bugged or do they have a mole on their team? Lots of finger pointing over those secret strategy tapes making fun of actress Ashley Judd if she were to throw her hat in the ring and run against him. And that leads our question of the day for you. Should Ashley Judd reconsider running now that Mitch McConnell’s opposition playbook has been revealed?
11:52 a.m. EST
THOMAS ROBERTS: So a secret tape scandal involving the Senate’s top Republican is now in the hands of the FBI. The feds investigating claims by Mitch McConnell that someone made a covert reporting of his private campaign strategy, then leaked it to the press, captured on that tape brutally personal remarks about his possible senate opponent, the actress Ashley Judd. NBC News Political Producer Casey Hunt live at the Russell rotunda on Capitol Hill with the latest on this. And Casey, this was a big dust-up yesterday morning. What more do we know about where these tapes originated from and who might have done it?
KASIE HUNT: Hey, Thomas. Well what we do know is the FBI, as we speak is investigating further on this. McConnell’s campaign is working with them. They said that the FBI is going to be combing through the office today looking to find out if someone did in fact bug the office as McConnell has claimed. But you know, critics have raised questions about whether it's appropriate for a political campaign to question their opponent's mental health. And Mother Jones’ David Corn who broke this story earlier today told Chris Jansing that you know it might not actually be okay. Let's listen to that.
DAVID CORN: I think he is really one of the slyest, and I don't mean that in a negative way, politicians in Washington, D.C. and he obviously is trying to use this to his advantage, portray him as a victim. He has tremendous troubles in Kentucky with conservatives. So if he can make himself the target of a left-wing hit job it’s going to help him get out of this very difficult situation.
HUNT: Of course, this is pretty par for the course in politics as we know it. If you remember, back in 2000, when John McCain of all people was running for president, there were people in his own party who were whispering about whether or not he was a loose cannon or would fly off the handle unnecessarily, and whether that actually made him fit to be president.
ROBERTS: Casey, one thing as we here there from David Corn the fact that Senator McConnell is kind of playing the victim card on this. I just want to remind everybody what he had to say about it. Take a listen.
MITCH MCCONNELL: Unbeknownst to us at the time, they were bugging or headquarters, quite a Nixonian move, this is what you get from the political left in America these days
ROBERTS: So this is very quickly being pinned on the left. What are the odds that this could have been an aide in the room that ran their iPhone to record this strategy session and somebody more interior to his own trusted circle?
HUNT: This is a pretty shrewd spin campaign at the very least from McConnell’s folks. Obviously we don't know the answers to that question, but so far folks haven't really been able to assure me that it wasn't a mole. That it wasn’t. There were about ten people in that strategy meeting, so it could have been any one of those ten people who did in fact record it and distribute it.
ROBERTS: Alright, a wild one and it still continues. We'll wait to see what kind of details emerge.
