MSNBC Praises Violent Protesters as ‘Expressing Their Humanity;’ ‘Accomplished Their Goal’

Kristine Marsh
May 25th, 2016 9:22 AM
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Update: Joan Walsh response to this blog post is featured below.

Outside of a Trump rally Tuesday night in Albuquerque New Mexico, anti-Trump protesters showed up and became violent, throwing rocks, smashing doors, jumping on cop cars and setting Trump flags on fire. For a couple of hours, police tried to control the protesters and find a way to let the hundreds of people who attended the rally, trapped inside, out safely. An NBC reporter was even knocked down off camera as he reported on the scene. Yet his colleagues at sister network MSNBC were less than shocked by the protesters actions, in fact they seemed congratulatory, praising them for their actions and rationalizing their violence.

Throughout the late night coverage of the protest, Chris Matthews talked with several MSNBC contributors who said a number of shocking things, actually defending the violence.

MSNBC host Joy Reid characterized the protests as “beneficial” to Trump, saying it allowed him “to be the carnival barker” and “humiliate” the protesters. Chris Matthews agreed, saying that the Trump team goes out to “basically mock the people there.”

MTV News’ Jamil Smith turned to the protesters themselves, expressing his admiration for the protesters, who he saw as having “accomplished their goal” and “got their issues aired.”

JAMIL SMITH:  I see a lot of people expressing their humanity in the face of a candidate who's really built his candidacy on denouncing their humanity. Yeah, there are a few people out there not actually out there to protest but at the end of the day, they accomplished their goal, got on TV and they got their issues aired.

Matthews agreed with Smith, calling the people they spoke to “great” before Walsh jumped in to gush over the protesters.

CHRIS MATTHEWS:  I thought the three people we heard from were great.  

JOAN WALSH: They were. They have grievances. It's not like it's mindless or they just want violence. They're speaking out against someone who's really attacking their community.

Earlier Walsh justified the violence saying, “I think if you were Latino immigrant you would be frankly terrified and very angry and so I can see why we’re going to have another Florida...I think to see the reality of him as one of 17 versus he is the standard bearer he's going to represent one of our major parties is frankly terrifying to a lot of people.”

All this, even after one of their own NBC reporters was assaulted by protesters during his live coverage.

UPDATE: Joan Walsh responded to Newsbusters with this tweet, claiming she was only defending the “peaceful protesters.”