It was impossible to tell the difference between NBC’s allegedly straight newsman Chuck Todd and MSNBC’s Joy Reid as they both wondered what the GOP’s reaction would be if Justice Clarence Thomas was Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Harlan Crow were George Soros. Ignoring questions around Sotomayor was a theme for MSNBC on Thursday.
On the streaming platform NBC News NOW, Todd used the days Meet the Press NOW to urge viewers to “Just ask yourself this. Imagine the reaction from those same very senators if a liberal justice was accused of taking money from a donor, oh, let's say George Soros, and he was paying the tuition of, say, the niece of Sonia Sotomayor. Ask yourself what the reaction would be.”
Todd did acknowledge that it is likely Democrats would also have a different reaction, but he still accepted their current premise Thomas did something horribly wrong, “You have to—and it’s fair to ask would Democrats be as forceful in their calls for accountability if it were a liberal justice that were as compromised as Clarence Thomas clearly is.”
While the controversy surrounding Sotomayor and Random House is not a perfect analogue to Thomas and Crow, there is a compelling case to be made that what Sotomayor did is worse. Crow has never had business before the Court while Random House has. Yet, despite this Republicans are not running around claiming Sotomayor is irredeemably corrupt.
Still, Todd lamented that “Folks now more than ever, and particularly on the right, the political jersey color seems to be the ultimate insulation from accountability in government, so many people on the right now say ‘yeah, but the left is more crooked, so it's okay if the crooked ones are on our side.’”
Todd also claimed that “any way you look at it, hyper-partisanship of politics has led to this crisis of accountability across virtually all branches of government nobody trusts any investigation coming out of that Capitol building that's next door to us.”
That hyper-partisanship, at least on Court related matters, is heavily concentrated to left as the namesake host of The ReidOut asked journalism Jason Johnson the same question that Todd asked his audience, “And I’m going to read what Julia Ioffe tweeted, she said ‘Once again, I ask you to imagine what would happen if instead of Clarence Thomas this were happening with Sonia Sotomayor and the billionaire wasn't Harlan Crow, it was George Soros.’ Dream with me, Jason. What would that be like?”
Also ignoring the relative silence from Republicans on the Sotomayor-Random House matter, Johnson claimed “Well, everybody from Jim Jordan to Mitch McConnell would be screaming for her head. People would be protesting outside their house. But that's the thing, Joy. This is what makes this particularly disgusting. We already know he's corrupt, he's bought, we already know the same thing is happening with John Roberts and his wife doing lawyer recruiting.”
It was odd for Johnson to bring up Roberts’s wife because that is the closest comparison to what Sotomayor did. After calling Crow a “Bond villain,” Johnson also alleged he “has his hands up Clarence Thomas like a puppet. And the idea that anyone could even remotely pretend that Clarence Thomas was his own man on the Court when this is happening is absolutely impossible… I'm waiting to find out he paid for colonoscopy surgery, something else like that, because Harlan Crow runs the entire family.”
Not only do NBC and MSNBC appear ignorant of the Sotomayor news, which is bad enough, they also project their efforts to delegitimize the Court onto others. Not descriptions for a "news" organization.
Meet the Press NOW was sponsored by Febreze and The ReidOut was sponsored by Sandals.
Here are transcripts for the May 4 shows:
NBC News Now Meet the Press NOW
5/4/2023
4:05 PM ET
CHUCK TODD: Just ask yourself this. Imagine the reaction from those same very senators if a liberal justice was accused of taking money from a donor, oh, let's say George Soros, and he was paying the tuition of, say, the niece of Sonia Sotomayor. Ask yourself what the reaction would be.
You have to—and it’s fair to ask would Democrats be as forceful in their calls for accountability if it were a liberal justice that were as compromised as Clarence Thomas clearly is.
Folks now more than ever, and particularly on the right, the political jersey color seems to be the ultimate insulation from accountability in government, so many people on the right now say “yeah, but the left is more crooked, so it's okay if the crooked ones are on our side,” and any way you look at it, hyper-partisanship of politics has led to this crisis of accountability across virtually all branches of government nobody trusts any investigation coming out of that Capitol building that's next door to us.
***
MSNBC The ReidOut
5/4/2023
7:24 PM ET
JOY REID: You know, Jason, I'm struck by the term at-risk youth, because I find it hard to imagine that someone being raised by a Supreme Court justice who is flying all over the world and going on, you know, expensive yachts and dining with people like Harlan Crow maybe in his garden of evil is an at-risk youth, right? That doesn't sound like an at-risk youth.
And I’m going to read what Julia Ioffe tweeted, she said “Once again, I ask you to imagine what would happen if instead of Clarence Thomas this were happening with Sonia Sotomayor and the billionaire wasn't Harlan Crow, it was George Soros.”
Dream with me, Jason. What would that be like?
JASON JOHNSON: Well, everybody from Jim Jordan to Mitch McConnell would be screaming for her head. People would be protesting outside their house. But that's the thing, Joy. This is what makes this particularly disgusting. We already know he's corrupt, he's bought, we already know the same thing is happening with John Roberts and his wife doing lawyer recruiting.
We know there's money in the pockets of all these people, but we talked about this before when Harlan Crow was first revealed to be the bad guy behind the camera, the Bond villain, whatever. It's one thing to take Clarence Thomas on expensive trips, because from an ethical standpoint, Thomas could've said at one point, “hey, I don't want to take trips anymore.”
But once you're paying for my mama's house and once you are paying for my son to go to school, you can't tell this man anymore. Harlan Crow is literally-- has his hands up Clarence Thomas like a puppet. And the idea that anyone could even remotely pretend that Clarence Thomas was his own man on the Court when this is happening is absolutely impossible.
Every single Democrat besides Ocasio-Cortez, every Democrat should be screaming to get Clarence Thomas to get off the bench, to talk about the inherent corruption that we've got on the Supreme Court right now, because this is not going to be the last reveal, Joy, because as we saw in the ProPublica article, his grand-nephew-son said, oh by the way, we took a trip to the Baltics. There's other trips coming—
REID: Yeah.
JOHNSON: -- that we probably haven't heard about yet. I'm waiting to find out he paid for colonoscopy surgery, something else like that, because Harlan Crow runs the entire family.
