The hosts and panelists on MSNBC’s Morning Joe now seem totally incapable of noticing just how extreme they’ve sound. MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude Jr. On Wednesday labeled radical liberal Nancy Pelosi as part of the Democratic “center.”
Talking to New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate Tom Malinowski about the state of the party Glaude spun: “You talked about the Democrats are the new patriots. Now, how would you describe your political agenda? Where do you see yourself in this current, what we might describe as a civil war, within the Democratic Party?”
He added: “You have folks like [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez who represents a particular kind of Progressive thrust, right? Then you have traditional Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and others who are saying we need to stay in the center. How do you see yourself fitting in that debate?”
Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic congressional candidate from New York who is an anti-Israel socialist. Pelosi is the Democatic Minority leader with an American Conservative Union score of 2.5. Perhaps in today’s Democratic Party this is the new center?
To Morning Joe’s credit, co-host Willie Geist did ask one challenging question on the subject of Russia. He wondered of Malinowski: “Isn't, Tom, though, the President right in part when he says these violations happened under President Obama and that you all should have done more? Do you all regret not doing more?”
But when the Democratic candidate replied, “This is a little bit like Harry Truman saying, Pearl Harbor happened on my predecessor's watch, so I wash my hands of it,” there was no follow-up of push back.
A transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Morning Joe
7/18/18
7:50[To Tom Malinowski, Democratic congressional candidate from New Jersey]
WILLIE GEIST: Let's bring into the conversation Tom Malinowski. He’s the Democratic nominee for New Jersey’s seventh district and the former assistant secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under President Obama. Good to have you with us.
TOM MALINOWSKI: Thank you.
GEIST: Let’s talk about what's playing in the seventh district of New Jersey. We were talking suburbs of New York. Western suburbs. What are people talking about when you knock on doors and go to events? What's top of mind?
...
HEIDI PRZYBLA: Tom, you were there in the closing days of the Obama presidency when you say you were racing against time to try and get information out on Russia. Many Democrats say that the reason why that information did not get out was because Mitch McConnell would not agree to sign on to a bipartisan statement and that if they did it by themselves it would be viewed as wholly political. At the same time, Democrats say well if we would have known more we would have done more. Who is right? Why didn't that information get out? Is it fair to blame McConnell?
GEIST: Isn't, Tom, though, the president right in part when he says these violations happened under President Obama and that you all should have done more? Do you all regret not doing more?
...
MALINOWSKI: This is a little bit like Harry Truman saying, Pearl Harbor happened on my predecessor's watch, so I wash my hands of it.
...
EDDIE GLAUDE JR. (Chair, Department of African American Studies, Princeton): I'm a Jersey boy, from Mississippi. So I want to pivot back to state politics. You talked about the Democrats are the new patriots. Now, how would you describe your political agenda? Where do you see yourself in this current, what we might describe as a civil war within the Democratic Party? You have folks like Ocasio-Cortez who represents a particular kind of Progressive thrust, right?
Then you have traditional Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and others who are saying we need to stay in the center. How do you see yourself fitting in that debate? And kind of detail some policies to kind of address what everyday ordinary workers are experiencing, declining wages, uptick in inflation, where people on main street feel like they're not really feeling this recovery.
