When MSNBC contributor and Daily Beast foreign editor Christopher Dickey appears to fill in MSNBC viewers on European politics, it's generally not long before his contempt for conservatives is made obvious. On Saturday's MSNBC Live, Dickey tagged right-wing French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen as a "crypto-fascist" and recalled that the French public believe President Donald Trump is "nuts."
By contrast, Dickey fawned over "progressive" candidate Emmanuel Macron as an "Obama-like" "moderate" who was "thoughtful" enough not to "try to capitalize" on the most recent terrorist attack in Paris.
After MSNBC host Sheinelle Jones asked if the attack would have an effect on the upcoming presidential election. Dickey took aim at Le Pen as he began:
Well, I think that Marine Le Pen -- and President Trump seems to be casting himself as an admirer of Marine Le Pen, who is essentially a crypto-fascist candidate -- I think that she could benefit. She certainly expects that she will benefit from this nervousness.
The far-left Daily Beast foreign editor then added:
She issued a kind of a manifesto yesterday in which she called on the present government of Francois Hollande to shut the borders, take anybody who's suspected of being a terrorist who's not a French national and deport them, anybody who's connected with terrorism and is a dual national should be stripped of their French nationality, this kind of thing, and put others in jail on preventive detention.
After Jones brought up a recent phone call between former President Barack Obama and "progressive" French candidate Macron, Dickey promoted the left-wing candidate as "thoughtful" and "middle of the road." Presumably referring to the terrorist attacks as he began, Dickey responded:
Well, it's probably not going to help Emmanuel Macron, who got the call from Obama. and who's kind of an Obama figure or maybe a lot of people say a kind of a Justin Trudeau figure referring to the very attractive prime minister of Canada.
He's very middle of the road, very moderate, very thoughtful, and he has not tried to capitalize on this, whereas Marine Le Pen and another of the frontrunners -- former Prime Minister Francois Fillons -- both of them have come out guns blazing saying, "We're the ones who are really tough on terrorism and, by the way, tough on immigrants and Islam."
A bit later, the Daily Beast editor built up former President Obama and derided President Trump as he predicted that Obama's call might help the left-wing candidate:
This is an important call. What you have to know is that throughout President Obama's presidency, he had an approval rating here that was vastly higher than his approval rating in the United States. It was often around 80 percent approval. People in France love Obama. You know, they don't like Trump at all. They think Trump's nuts. Obama, they liked a lot. They thought he was a symbol of a kind of a progressive America, the things that they want to believe about America. So this is exactly the kind of call that may help Macron.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portions of the Saturday, April 22, MSNBC Live:
1:45 p.m. ET
SHEINELLE JONES: Let's talk about this election, speaking of which, the President tweeted that this latest attack will have a big effect on the election, Can you tell us if it's swayed voters?
CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think that Marine Le Pen -- and President Trump seems to be casting himself as an admirer of Marine Le Pen, who is essentially a crypto-fascist candidate -- I think that she could benefit. She certainly expects that she will benefit from this nervousness.
She issued a kind of a manifesto yesterday in which she called on the present government of Francois Hollande to shut the borders, take anybody who's suspected of being a terrorist who's not a French national and deport them, anybody who's connected with terrorism and is a dual national should be stripped of their French nationality, this kind of thing, and put others in jail on preventive detention.
That's the kind of thing, if people are really, really scared, they'll seize on that and maybe they'll vote for Marine Le Pen. But I'm not sure that people are that scared.
JONES: Is there -- what about on the other end of the spectrum? President Obama made a phone call to the progressive candidate. Is that likely to help him there?
DICKEY: Well, it's probably not going to help Emmanuel Macron, who got the call from Obama. and who's kind of an Obama figure or maybe a lot of people say a kind of a Justin Trudeau figure referring to the very attractive prime minister of Canada.
He's very middle of the road, very moderate, very thoughtful, and he has not tried to capitalize on this, whereas Marine Le Pen and another of the frontrunners -- former Prime Minister Francois Fillons -- both of them have come out guns blazing saying, "We're the ones who are really tough on terrorism and, by the way, tough on immigrants and Islam."
(...)
DICKEY: This is an important call. What you have to know is that throughout President Obama's presidency, he had an approval rating here that was vastly higher than his approval rating in the United States. It was often around 80 percent approval. People in France love Obama. You know, they don't like Trump at all. They think Trump's nuts. Obama, they liked a lot. They thought he was a symbol of a kind of a progressive America, the things that they want to believe about America. So this is exactly the kind of call that may help Macron.
