All of MSNBC’s far-left fantasies came true Wednesday afternoon when reporter Jacob Soboroff got 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke to label President Trump a “white supremacist” – he didn’t exactly have to twist the left-wing politician’s arm. The impromptu live interview occurred in the 4:00 p.m. ET hour, causing Deadline: White House anchor Nicolle Wallace and her liberal panelists to be overwhelmed with joy.
Pulling O’Rourke aside during an anti-Trump rally in El Paso protesting the President visiting with victims of Saturday’s mass shooting in the border town, Soboroff feared: “How worried are you that with Donald Trump still in the Oval Office, something like this will inevitably happen again?” The former Texas Congressman replied: “It will happen again because what happened in El Paso is not an isolated incident.”
Soboroff then followed up: “You’ve been very clear that you believe the President is a racist. Is the President a white supremacist?” O’Rourke predictably agreed with the nasty accusation: “He is. He has also made that very clear. He’s dehumanized, or sought to dehumanize, those who do not look like or pray like the majority here in this country.”
After the interview, Wallace gleefully proclaimed: “I think this presidential race will never be the same. You now have one of the top candidates, has described Donald J. Trump, an incumbent president, as a white supremacist, changing the contours of this race from this point forward.” She of course mislabeled O’Rourke as “one of the top candidates” in the Democratic field, polling says otherwise.
Soboroff swooned over O’Rourke’s rhetorical bomb throwing:
I think it’s an extraordinary thing to say, but Beto O’Rourke consistently has pointed to the underlying documentation, the receipts, if you will, about the way that the President talks about people of color in this country....Beto O’Rourke says we have to synthesize it, we have to look at it as a whole, and his conclusion is that Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is a white supremacist.
Turning to leftist politics editor of The Root, Jason Johnson, Wallace reiterated: “...there will be the day before Beto O’Rourke called Donald Trump a white supremacist and the day after. I think the Democratic primary now changed. The face of it, the feel of it.” She continued to melodramatically hype the news: “You now have Beto O’Rourke, a son of El Paso, someone who has been blunt in calling Donald Trump a racist, in tying the rhetoric to the violence, now saying, ‘Yes, he is indeed a white supremacist.’”
Johnson celebrated the “amazing moment,” the “Beto moment,” and went further: “...it also sets a new baseline for how these Democrats have to talk about this president.... since we have identified this president as being a white nationalist and a racist, that means if you support him, you bear some responsibility.” He warned 2020 Democratic candidates against reaching out to Trump voters: “...if you are, you are saying that you’re trying to reach out to people who support white nationalism, racism and domestic terrorism.”
Moments later, Wallace did express some skepticism, but only to complain that Democrats had waited too long to label Trump and all of his supporters as “white supremacists” and “terrorists”: “And I guess part of me is surprised it took so long for someone to say it.”
Former Obama administration official and current MSNBC justice and security analyst Matthew Miller gushed over O’Rourke’s wildly irresponsible ranting: “Yeah, look, that was the Beto O’Rourke that a lot of people fell in love with in the 2018 Senate campaign. Someone who was willing to say things that he knew were true, that he believed in his heart, and didn’t worry about the political blowback.”
He implored his party: “Democrats need to frame this election in moral terms....And you know, voting for a white supremacist is not a moral choice. Supporting a white supremacist is not a moral choice.”
The vile discussion came only one day after Wallace was forced to apologize for falsely claiming that the President was “talking about exterminating Latinos.”
All of it just the latest sad chapter in the MSNBC host’s career of deranged and unhinged attacks on Trump.
Here is a full transcript the August 7 segment:
4:41 PM ET
NICOLLE WALLACE: My colleague Jacob Soboroff is joined by Beto O’Rourke. No one made a stronger, more blunt case about Donald Trump than your guest, Jacob.
JACOB SOBOROFF: And Nicolle Wallace has just said nobody has made a stronger or more blunt case about Donald Trump than you have. Congressman, right now the President is on the tarmac greeting the members of the Texas delegation. He’s on El Paso’s soil. What goes through your head hearing that?
BETO O’OROURKE: Well, I think this is the answer to that. You have all of these beautiful people from El Paso, but also from Ciudad Juárez, our sister city, who are coming together in the wake of this horrific loss of life. This terrorism that was, in part, inspired by President Trump in his warnings of invasions and infestations, his demonization of this community, immigrants as rapists and criminals. There’s a very real consequence to that. It doesn’t just offend us. It hurts us and it kills us. And so, this community is coming together, focusing on one another, on making sure those families heal. Wish the President had not come, but we’re going to stay focused on El Paso.
SOBOROFF: As you said, the reality is, fact of the matter is, he is here. Right now he’s shaking hands with his political allies. We talked about earlier today how you, your successor, Congresswoman Escobar, chose not to participate in that at all. You have seen a lot of big rallies. Looking out at this crowd today when you looked out at this one, how was it different for you?
O’ROURKE: Oh, it’s just beautiful. I mean, here we are under a beautiful sky, a broiling sun, it’s probably 101 degrees. Folks have been out here for hours listening to Congresswoman Escobar, now listening to Reverend William Barber, listening to one another, listening to DREAMers and celebrating the best of who we are. This is one of the safest cities in America, not despite but because it’s a city of immigrants. And I think though we bore the brunt of this attack and this hatred and this racism, we also hold the answer to this country that is so divided right now. There’s a way to come together, not despite our differences but by embracing our differences. That’s what’s made El Paso so special.
SOBOROFF: You’ve been very clear that you believe the President, in large part, is to blame for what happened over the weekend here in El Paso. How worried are you that with Donald Trump still in the Oval Office, something like this will inevitably happen again?
O’ROURKE: It will happen again because what happened in El Paso is not an isolated incident. After the President warned of caravans, you had somebody go into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, warning of caravans. You had the mosque in Victoria, Texas burned to the ground on the day that Trump signed his executive order seeking to ban Muslim travel to the United States. So there are very real consequences to his words, to his tweets, to the racism that he fans. You saw this in May, at a rally in Florida, he says, “How are we going to stop these people,” meaning these immigrants, “from coming to this country?” And someone yells out, “Shoot them!” The crowd roars their approval –
SOBOROFF: He laughs.
O’ROURKE: He laughs. He says that’s okay with me. So he’s not the source of racism in this country, this country’s been racist as long as it’s been a country, but he is certainly fanning the flames, he is certainly making violence like this more possible and more real until we change course.
SOBOROFF: You’ve been very clear that you believe the President is a racist. Is the President a white supremacist?
O’ROURKE: He is. He has also made that very clear. He’s dehumanized, or sought to dehumanize, those who do not look like or pray like the majority here in this country. He said, “I wish we had more immigrants from Nordic countries because those from Haiti bring AIDS, those from Africa come from shithole nations.” He’s been very clear about who he prefers to be in this country and who he literally wants to keep out with walls and cages and militarization and torture and cruelty. And again, we in El Paso have borne the brunt of all of that, but we in El Paso are standing up to all of that right now. And I have never been more proud of this community than I am at this moment.
SOBOROFF: Alright, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, appreciate it. Nice to see you again today.
O’ROURKE: Thank you, appreciate it.
SOBOROFF: Nicolle, he’s right, it’s a 101-degree day out here but it’s really extraordinary to see the strength of this crowd, the unity of this crowd, the way everybody is coming together out here, even though many of these folks, maybe all of these folks don’t want to see the President of the United States here today.
WALLACE: Jacob, stay with us. I want to underscore two things. I think this presidential race will never be the same. You now have one of the top candidates, has described Donald J. Trump, an incumbent president, as a white supremacist, changing the contours of this race from this point forward.
SOBOROFF: I mean, I think it’s an extraordinary thing to say, but Beto O’Rourke consistently has pointed to the underlying documentation, the receipts, if you will, about the way that the President talks about people of color in this country, and it’s long preceded what happened here this weekend. I mean, ad nauseam we’ve talked about it, but the minute he came down the escalator, “Mexicans are rapists and criminals,” “Congresswoman of color in this country should go back to where they came from.” We’ve seen “infestations” and “invasions” and the separation of children along the border started right here in El Paso. The pilot program in 2017 happened not far from where we are in the El Paso border patrol sector. So if you look at everything in isolation, you know, maybe there’s a case to be made. But Beto O’Rourke says we have to synthesize it, we have to look at it as a whole, and his conclusion is that Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is a white supremacist.
WALLACE: Jacob, I don’t know if you have somewhere to go, but if you could hang out with us for a few more minutes. I want to come back to the interview but I want to get some quick reaction from Jason Johnson. I believe the Democratic primary, there will be the day before Beto O’Rourke called Donald Trump a white supremacist and the day after. I think the Democratic primary now changed. The face of it, the feel of it. We came on the air with the Biden speech seemingly changing the Democratic primary, a litany of Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric laid out and tied to the violence in El Paso. You now have Beto O’Rourke, a son of El Paso, someone who has been blunt in calling Donald Trump a racist, in tying the rhetoric to the violence, now saying, “Yes, he is indeed a white supremacist.”
JASON JOHNSON [THE ROOT, POLITICS EDITOR]: That is an amazing moment. I completely agree with you, Nicolle. And also this, not only does this give us the Beto moment, if we’re going to talk pure politics, the Beto moment, but it also sets a new baseline for how these Democrats have to talk about this president. Because the extension of this, right, and we’ve seen this with Joaquin Castro, we’ve seen this with certain things that Joe Scarborough has said, since we have identified this president as being a white nationalist and a racist, that means if you support him, you bear some responsibility. Which changes the complete dynamic of the 2020 race with many of these candidates saying, “We need to reach out.” Well, do you? Do you now? Because if you are, you are saying that you’re trying to reach out to people who support white nationalism, racism and domestic terrorism.
So I think this is a new dividing line in the 2020 race. I think it’s a welcome line. I think I’m glad that Democrats are going to walk across it and make a clear statement. Because this is not just about good feelings and elections now, it’s the soul of the nation, as Joe Biden said, it’s about a racist president, and it’s about us coming together and recognizing what’s really at stake.
WALLACE: Raul, he’s right. Joe Scarborough is one of the voices most out front in asking questions about Donald Trump’s donors and what they are donating to.
RAUL REYES [USA TODAY, OPINION COLUMNIST]: Right, right. And as a result of today everyone who’s running these Democratic hopeful campaigns, they are figuring out their answers to that question right now because that’s going to be a question that goes down the line at those debates. And another question that’s a by-product of that, and this is in terms of the whole party, is this party going to continue to try to reach a slice of these rural, these Midwestern voters that turned out very strongly for Trump and are still sticking by him, if the Democratic candidates believe that they’re supporting a white supremacist? Or are they going to try to go a more progressive route and bring in new voters, bring in women of color, bring Latino voters, bring in more African-Americans? I think it’s also going to potentially change the way the party approaches voter outreach. And just that, it’s amazing how a small statement like that is going to have major implications in the next debate and the next course of this race.
WALLACE: And I guess part of me is surprised it took so long for someone to say it. Because Donald Trump, in an interview I believe with Fox Business, described himself as a “proud nationalist.” And it’s just two more ticks along the dial to being a white supremacist, right?
MATTHEW MILLER [MSNBC JUSTICE & SECURITY ANALYST]: Yeah, look, that was the Beto O’Rourke that a lot of people fell in love with in the 2018 Senate campaign. Someone who was willing to say things that he knew were true, that he believed in his heart, and didn’t worry about the political blowback. And I think we’ve seen that since this tragedy in El Paso. You saw him, he had that great moment on the – where he asked reporters –
WALLACE: “What the bleep.”
MILLER: Yeah, I was trying to figure out how I was going to say that on the air. And that is the point. I mean, look, we need to – Democrats need to frame this election in moral terms, need to make clear that it’s not just questions of health care and it’s not just questions of gun control and it’s not just, you know, questions of immigration. Those are all really important. But this says something about who we are as a country. And you know, voting for a white supremacist is not a moral choice. Supporting a white supremacist is not a moral choice.
(...)
