MSNBC’s decision to bench the Morning Joe crew in the name of “lowering the temperature while allowing the prime-time lineup to run amuck at the Republican National Convention is, to put it charitably, a head-scratching decision. Tonight’s shameless and spurious comparison of the parties’ dealing with felony convictions serves as proof evident of the folly of that decision.
Watch as noted Russia conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow tries to establish that the felony convictions of Senator Robert Menéndez and former President Donald Trump are morally equal, and makes a false comparison of the parties’ handling of these convictions (click “Expand” to view transcript):
MSNBC Republican National Convention Special
7/16/24
9:05 PM
RACHEL MADDOW: In terms of the other news that is going on around this convention that is sort of casting a shadow over these events, it is- it would be a remarkable thing in any circumstance, it’s a particularly remarkable thing that in New Jersey today the senior senator, Robert Menendez, is now facing, I mean- calls for his resignation, certainly. Calls for his expulsion from the Senate. In federal court, New Jersey senator Menendez was convicted of 16 felonies with which he was charged. Guilty on all charges including bribery, extortion, acting as a foreign agent. This is the case in which Senator Menendez was charged with accepting cash and gold bars in exchange for acting to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Now that Menendez has not just been indicted on those charges, but convicted, it is basically inconceivable that the Democratic Party will allow Robert Menendez to stay in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer today insisted that Menendez must resign, as did Menendez’ fellow New Jersey senator Corey Booker. We’re going to be speaking live with Senator Booker later on this hour. New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Phil Murphy also demanding that Senator Menendez resign because he has been criminally convicted. Governor Murphy even going further, saying that if Senator Menendez does not resign, he is requesting that the United States Senate vote to expel him- force him out if he won't leave on his own terms. This- this is- this is awkward, right? For what’s going on here in Milwaukee. To be clear, it is the Democratic Senate leader, the Democratic governor of his home state demanding that a Democratic senator must resign or be forced out because of his criminal conviction. And the Democrats surely aren't happy that a senator from their party has turned out to be a felon 16 times over. But at least the Democratic Party knows what to do when something like that happens, right? If you are convicted of felonies in the Democratic Party you are expected to leave office, and indeed your party will demand that you must leave of your own accord and if you don't leave of your own accord they will remove you otherwise. That’s how it works in Democratic Party politics. Had Robert Menendez been a Republican, I'm sorry JD Vance, Bob Menendez would probably be the vice presidential nominee of the Republican party by now. All of the both sides mirror image analysis we get of how there are things wrong with both parties and there’s corruption, the handling of Robert Menendez and the handling of Donald Trump, both of whom are convicted on multiple felony counts, tells you what you need to know in terms of the way these two parties feel about law and order issues.
In order for Maddow’s nonsensical statements to make sense one must, as per the Party’s final, most essential command as written in Orwell’s 1984, “reject the evidence of your eyes and ears”. This is essential to accepting the false premise set forth by Maddow, that a case Frankensteined together from statute-limited civil misdemeanors and uncharged federal violations into a state felony by a partisan Soros-financed district attorney is somehow morally equivalent to a powerful senator getting caught accepting Mercedes Benzes and gold bars in exchange for preferential treatment to various countries.
And furthermore, Maddow requires viewers to believe that the reason Democrats are calling upon Menendez to resign NOW is because of some sense of moral uprightness, and not because they waited until the last second to do so as not to mess with their majority.
Maddow’s convoluted moral equivalence requires, in order to achieve credibility, that one completely forget the existence of George Anthony Devolder Santos, the now-former congressman from New York who was expelled from the House upon indictment. That’s the moral comp to Robert Menéndez who, if we’re being completely honest, should’ve been long gone from the Senate once the…Dominican allegations, corroborated by federal authorities, came to light. That, or the first bribery indictment. Pick one. But it ain't Trump, at least not if we're being honest.
Either way, the public discourse is not served by such gaslighting and willful spreading of disinformation. The temperature, as it were, is insufficiently lowered.
