Liberal journalists did their best to defend Black Lives Matter Marxists on The Last Word Wednesday night, while not actually addressing their radical ideology. After President Trump called BLM, “Marxists” in an interview yesterday, PBS White House correspondent used a made-up statistic to defend the group, praising the activists for “wanting to make America better.” Boston Globe columnist Renee Graham also deflected blame by saying President Trump was “trying to scare white people” with a fake narrative that protesters were violent anarchists.
Guest host Ali Velshi began bragging that Joe Biden’s campaign is “addressing the needs and concerns of people of color,” before noting that Trump wasn’t trying to reach black voters by criticizing Black Lives Matter because most agreed the American system needed to be “fixed.”
Yamiche Alcindor then ardently defended BLM by glossing over their radical beliefs and pushing misleading and false stats of her own:
That's right. We know through statistics that African-Americans, 13% of the population, and African-Americans are more than 2 1/2 times more likely to be killed by the police, by white people. That's the heart of what Black Lives Matter is about, stopping police brutality and unjust treatment of African-Americans in this country.
While BLM defenders often tout this misleading police stat, Alcindor’s statement that black people are more likely to be killed by white people is complete fiction. Alcindor didn’t correct herself at any point in this interview for saying this either.
She then sneered at Trump for being against a movement that was supposedly helping America be better and give “equality” to black Americans:
This is par for the course of President Trump. This is what he does. Really been against Black Lives Matter for a long time...The president continues to say these are anarchists. As someone who has reported on Black Lives Matter, these are people who want America to be better and live up to ideals of treating every man and woman equally.
Velshi continued to defend the Marxist radicals by prompting his second guest to explain how most BLM protesters are “not political whatsoever.” But instead of defending them, Boston Globe columnist and associate editor Renee Graham chose to take the easy way out by attacking “racist” Trump instead. Like many in the media, Graham denied reality, sneering the president was trying to “scare white people silly by painting protesters as violent anarchists” as a distraction:
VELSHI: Renee Graham, this Black Lives Matter issue is interesting. Because people who wear the shirt or have the and sign don't in many cases know that they have anything to do with an organization or founding principles, deciding that their marxist or anarchist. Most people hear the three words, black lives matter, and say, huh that's true. I can support that, it's not a political thing to support it, whatsoever.
RENEE GRAHAM: I don't think Donald Trump knows what Marxism is, I think it's just a word someone said to him and he threw it out there. The thing to remember is, racism is Trump's comfort food, doling it out in heaping portions to his base because he believes that's what binds them to him. So what he’s doing right now, as his campaign is failing, so he didn't have to talk about 157,000 people dead from coronavirus and COVID, is he's playing a medley of his greatest hits, he’s lambasting athletes because of kneeling, he’s talking about the BLM banners, but this is all -- his idea of a winning strategy, which is to scare white people silly by painting protesters as violent anarchists because he has nothing else to hang this campaign on.
It would almost be funny if these journalists made statements like this with a straight face in the middle of a left-wing riot, while BLM and Antifa lob projectiles at police and start fires behind them. Well, actually Velshi already tried that back in May.
This defense of radical Marxists was brought to you by Farmers and Cadillac. You can tell The Last Word’s advertisers how you feel here.
Read a transcript below:
MSNBC The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell
8/5/2020
ALI VELSHI: Yamiche, I saw you tweeting about this today, some of the things the president were saying. Some people do agree with him, no question. He doesn't seem to be trying to expand his reach to others. Polling consistently shows that particularly on the issue of African-Americans, their treatment at hands of police, inequality, that most Americans think there's something to be fixed here.
ALCINDOR: That's right. We know through statistics that African-Americans, 13% of the population, and African-Americans more than 2 1/2 times more likely to be killed by police, by white people. That's the heart of what Black Lives Matter is about, stopping police brutality and unjust treatment of African-Americans in this country.
This is par for the course of President Trump. This is what he does. Really been against Black Lives Matter for a long time. Fact check quickly, movement did not start with that chant denigrating police officers but the idea that Trayvon Martin was a young man who shouldn't have been killed and went on to talk about reforms in policing. The president continues to say these are anarchists. As someone who has reported on Black Lives Matter, these are people who want America to be better and live up to ideals of treating every man and woman equally. And talked about President Obama, it was a political speech but calling for things that John Lewis wanted, reuniting and really putting teeth back into the voting rights act. That was President Obama saying this is what John Lewis's life and work was about and we should continue to do that work.
VELSHI: Renee Graham, this Black Lives Matter issue is interesting. Because people who wear the shirt or have the and sign don't in many cases know that they have anything to do with an organization or founding principles, deciding that their marxist or anarchist. Most people hear the three words, black lives matter, and say, huh that's true. I can support that, it's not a political thing to support it, whatsoever.
RENEE GRAHAM: I don't think Donald Trump knows what Marxism is, I think it's just a word someone said to him and he threw it out there. The thing to remember is, racism is Trump's comfort food, doling it out in heaping portions to his base because he believes that's what binds them to him. So what he’s doing right now, as his campaign is failing, so he didn't have to talk about 157,000 people dead from coronavirus and COVID, is he's playing a medley of his greatest hits, he’s lambasting athletes because of kneeling, he’s talking about the BLM banners, but this is all -- his idea of a winning strategy, which is to scare white people silly by painting protesters as violent anarchists because he has nothing else to hang this campaign on.
