MSNBC Contributor: Obama Interrupted During Immigration Speech Because He's Black

Noel Sheppard
June 15th, 2012 3:46 PM
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Barack Obama on Friday, while giving a speech in the White House Rose Garden about his new illegal immigration edict, was interrupted with a question from the Daily Caller's Neil Munro.

Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for someone on MSNBC to suggest it was because the president is black (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

As this was addressed on the Martin Bashir show shortly after it happened, Democratic strategist turned MSNBC contributor Julian Epstein said, "Jonathan and Joy-Ann are not saying something because I think they’re being politic here, but, it, this is just so unprecedented and so outrageous that you have to ask the question: would the rightwing be doing this if we had a white president there? The fact that the first African-American president…”

Host Bashir interrupted saying, “Well, you go ahead and answer that question, Julian. You answer that question.”

“I think it’s a very important question,” Epstein continued, “because I think that this is the first African-American president, and we’ve never had a white president been told by the opposing party to shut up in the middle of a major address to Congress. We’ve never had a president heckled so disrespectfully. We’ve never had this otherness afforded to any other president.”

“And I think the rightwing is going to have some explaining to do, because to me, it seems patently obvious.”

To begin with, we are by no means condoning Munro's behavior.

However, is everything that happens to President Obama because of the color of his skin?

As the Daily Caller is a conservative website, isn't it far more likely Munro doesn't agree with the new immigration policy the current White House resident was presenting that just so happens to be an edict without any approval from Congress?

Or is it just always better on MSNBC to throw the race card whenever possible?