On her MSNBC show on Tuesday, anchor Andrea Mitchell teed up The Atlantic's senior political columnist Ron Fournier to promote his latest op/ed declaring Donald Trump “unfit” to be president compared to the “very experienced” Hillary Clinton: “...you've got a provocative column up today....you said there is ‘no equivalency’ between Clinton and Trump. That, ‘Hillary has her problems, but Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency.’”
She wondered: “You've been a tough critic of the Clintons for many decades. So what inspired you to come down this hard?” Fournier downplayed his record of hammering the Clintons: “Well, you know, I've been a tough critic, but an admirer of the Clintons. You know, I've known them for a long time I’ve probably voted for Bill Clinton more than anybody in Washington.” After that statement of support, he laughably added: “So I try to look at it very objectively.”
He explained:
I look at Hillary Clinton, very experienced, she's ready to walk into the Oval Office, she's already been in the Oval Office, been Secretary of State. But what she did with the e-mails, with the FOI, with the whole concept of legislative oversight, with not speaking frankly to the public about it for the last few years, with jeopardizing U.S. secrets, boy, that's a big mark on the con side.
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While acknowledging Clinton’s obvious “con side,” Fournier proceeded to dismiss those concerns by bashing Trump:
But then you look at Donald Trump. And the whole rest – that was two columns – or two paragraphs – the whole rest of the column was look at everything Donald Trump has said or done that show that he isn't afraid of saying bigoted things, he isn’t afraid saying sexist things, he isn't afraid of saying obscene things, he shows no interest or understanding in policy....Donald Trump lies much more than even Hillary Clinton.
He concluded: “...if you just look at those two candidates, there is no equivalency, Donald Trump cannot be President of the United States. Even with a very flawed Democrat on the other side.”
In another column just published on August 1, Fournier begged Clinton to “stop lying” about her various scandals.
In March of 2015, he went so far as to suggest the former Secretary of State not even run for president in the wake of her e-mail scandal.
Here is a transcript of the August 30 exchange:
12:44 PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: Ron Fournier, you've got a provocative column up today and we wanted to ask you about that. Because you said there is “no equivalency” between Clinton and Trump. That, “Hillary has her problems, but Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency.” I’ve known you a long time, you have a wire service background with the AP, as the bureau chief, and we first met in Little Rock. You've been a tough critic of the Clintons for many decades. So what inspired you to come down this hard?
RON FOURNIER: Well, you know, I've been a tough critic, but an admirer of the Clintons. You know, I've known them for a long time I’ve probably voted for Bill Clinton more than anybody in Washington. Now if you count primaries, I voted against him a few times. So I try to look at it very objectively. And what I did in this column is just kind of think out loud like I think a lot of voters are.
I look at Hillary Clinton, very experienced, she's ready to walk into the Oval Office, she's already been in the Oval Office, been Secretary of State. But what she did with the e-mails, with the FOI, with the whole concept of legislative oversight, with not speaking frankly to the public about it for the last few years, with jeopardizing U.S. secrets, boy, that's a big mark on the con side.
But then you look at Donald Trump. And the whole rest – that was two columns – or two paragraphs – the whole rest of the column was look at everything Donald Trump has said or done that show that he isn't afraid of saying bigoted things, he isn’t afraid saying sexist things, he isn't afraid of saying obscene things, he shows no interest or understanding in policy.
If you stack up the lies, where politicians have told truths that they know – or untruths that they know are untrue, it's not even close. Donald Trump lies much more than even Hillary Clinton. So she sits at 11% on trustworthiness, and Donald Trump, there's about two-thirds of the American public that don't think he has the temperament to be president. So if you’re just looking at those two candidates – and I also bring in the third party candidates, but I won’t bore you with that – if you just look at those two candidates, there is no equivalency, Donald Trump cannot be President of the United States. Even with a very flawed Democrat on the other side.
(...)
