MSNBC’s Capehart Gushes Over Hillary’s ‘Brilliant’ Voting Speech

June 7th, 2015 9:13 AM

On Saturday’s Up w/ Steve Kornacki, liberal Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart heaped praise on Hillary Clinton after she attacked the Republican Party over voting rights in America. 

Speaking to Kornacki, Capehart proclaimed Clinton’s speech “politically it’s a brilliant move. For her base it’s a brilliant move. And also, just as an American, it’s a brilliant move.” 

The liberal commentator oozed at Clinton for “taking the fight to the Republican Party” and by giving a speech on voting in Texas “she’s not only doing it on their turf, but she’s calling them out by name.” 

After Kornacki played a clip of several potential Republican presidential candidates blasting Clinton's speech, Capehart observed that Hillary's doing exactly what she wants to do:

She’s calling them out by name and you showed and as you said. But what was interesting was watching Governor Kasich, how angry he was. This is the reaction she’s getting. She’s forcing them to defend themselves. She's forcing them to defend themselves and their states, defend their party. Because it's the party that’s been doing this all over the country. 

Nowhere in his commentary did Capehart attempt to be objective as he cheered on Clinton’s clearly partisan speech and instead maintained that nothing could go wrong as she’s “forcing them to have a conversation on something she cares about on her terms.”

See relevant transcript below. 

MSNBC’s Up w/ Steve Kornacki 

June 6, 2015

STEVE KORNACKI: So Jonathan, she wants this fight. She calls them out by name because she knows we’re going to be playing clips of them responding. She wants the clip of her up there making that speech and Christie and Kasich up there saying that out there. What is the game here that she sees?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well look, what it shows is, and especially by doing this speech in Texas, she’s taking the fight to the Republican Party. And she’s not only doing it on their turf, but she’s calling them out by name and you showed and as you said. But what was interesting was watching Governor Kasich, how angry he was. This is the reaction she’s getting. She’s forcing them to defend themselves. She's forcing them to defend themselves and their states, defend their party. Because it's the party that’s been doing this all over the country. 

Politically it's a brilliant move. For her base it's a brilliant move. And also, just as an American, it's a brilliant move. Because the ideas that she put forth, I mean Governor Kasich called her out because there's no early voting in New York. But one of her proposals is to have at least 20 days of early voting nationwide. So she's forcing them to have a conversation on something she cares about on her terms.