MSNBC has become a safe space for those on Joe Biden’s vice presidential short list. On Thursday night’s episode of The Last Word, host Lawrence O’Donnell threw Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) softballs, and pushed bribery claims against Attorney General Bill Barr.
O’Donnell could not help himself from asking Harris about the leftist conspiracy theory that Barr was involved in bribery, and Harris agreed to it while stating that she did not know much about it:
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: What was your reaction to what you just heard Jerry Nadler say that the testimony they got today could end up constituting bribery, on the part, bribery attempt by the Attorney General?
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): Well, I have not seen the transcript yet, but you're right. Based on what Nadler said and, what I’ve, the little I have read so far about it there, it's deeply troubling.
MSNBC has had their agenda set to go after President Trump—and anyone in his administration— as much as they possibly can, in order to sway the election in Biden’s favor. Absent of concrete evidence, O’Donnell urged Harris to agree with his position on the matter.
Harris was likely invited on to O’Donnell’s program because she is said to be on Biden’s short list for his vice presidential pick. Unsurprisingly, the far-left host did not ask Harris any tough question, instead reciting Biden campaign talking points:
O’DONNELL: Senator, Joe Biden today talking about Donald Trump basically just surrendering in the war on the coronavirus and also what is now the Biden Plan of how to restore this economy, which of course begins with somehow getting control of the coronavirus.
HARRIS: Yeah. Joe has a great plan that he unveiled today. It's the first in a three-part series that is focused on addressing the economic health and well-being of America and the first one that he unveiled today is about bringing back manufacturing jobs, supporting union jobs, implementing a $15 minimum wage, investing in research and development and innovation in America.
The question O’Donnell posed gave Harris the opportunity to praise Biden, hence making her look like a more attractive VP candidate.
O’Donnell had the opportunity to demand answers about the massive surge in coronavirus cases in Harris’ home state of California, but he did not:
O’DONNELL: What about your state of California where coronavirus is on the rise? What should the state of California be doing that it's not doing?
HARRIS: Well, I think what we should continue to do is what the leaders of California have been doing, which is listening to the public health experts and letting them lead the discussion. And, so, the discussion where California has been a leader, Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles was one of the first, I believe, if not the first, to say that we should be wearing masks outside. We have seen the adherence to social distancing, at least from our leaders saying that that is required
Instead, O’Donnell let Harris praise the failed Mayor of Los Angeles, which is where the majority of cases are in California, and his obviously failed policies. O’Donnell also missed the opportunity to ask Harris about Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s disastrous response to coronavirus outbreaks in prisons.
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Click "Expand" to read the full transcript:
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
07/09/2020
10:23:11 PM
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: What we just heard Jerry Nadler say about Jeffrey Berman's testimony today is something that we might have heard from you as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee if the Senate Judiciary Committee was operating the way the House Committee is operating. Here we have a U.S. Attorney publically forced out of his job and of course your committee run by a Republican Lindsey Graham doesn't want to hear anything about it. What was your reaction to what you just heard Jerry Nadler say that the testimony they got today could end up constituting bribery, on the part, bribery attempt by the Attorney General?
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): Well, I have not seen the transcript yet, but you're right. Based on what Nadler said and, what I’ve, the little I have read so far about it there, it's deeply troubling. I have been calling on Barr to resign for months. And, frankly, since the first time that I met him during his confirmation hearing I suspected that he was not being forthright and that his motivations are not consistent with the role and responsibility of the United States Department of Justice, but are more consistent with what are the personal and political best interest of Donald Trump. And this most recent event, which is the firing of Attorney Berman is furtherance of that goal apparently of Barr's, which is to do whatever is necessary to subvert or obstruct a pursuit of justice by the United States Department of Justice.
(…)
10:35:22 PM
O’DONNELL: Senator, Joe Biden today talking about Donald Trump basically just surrendering in the war on the coronavirus and also what is now the Biden Plan of how to restore this economy, which of course begins with somehow getting control of the coronavirus.
HARRIS: Yeah. Joe has a great plan that he unveiled today. It's the first in a three-part series that is focused on addressing the economic health and well-being of America and the first one that he unveiled today is about bringing back manufacturing jobs, supporting union jobs, implementing a $15 minimum wage, investing in research and development and innovation in America. You know, Joe talks about it in the sense of, you know, we want to export American products but not American jobs, so it is very exciting. AND again, let's have a leader that focuses on what we need to do to strengthen our country instead of somebody like Donald Trump who tries to divide the country. And Joe’s right.
Listen, the coronavirus is getting worse. And no one can deny that. No one can deny. Yesterday alone, Lawrence, there were almost 60,000 new cases. Yesterday alone. And we have in Donald Trump somebody who likes to use the term Commander in Chief but he's in command of nothing except his own ego. What we are seeing is a lack of national standard for testing, for contact tracing. We're again looking at hospitals and front line health care workers being concerned about having adequate PPE’s and the equipment that is necessary to save their own lives, much less the lives of the people that they have vowed to protect. So Joe’s right. And I agree with him.
O’DONNELL: What about your state of California where coronavirus is on the rise? What should the state of California be doing that it's not doing?
HARRIS: Well, I think what we should continue to do is what the leaders of California have been doing, which is listening to the public health experts and letting them lead the discussion. And, so, the discussion where California has been a leader, Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles was one of the first, I believe, if not the first, to say that we should be wearing masks outside. We have seen the adherence to social distancing, at least from our leaders saying that that is required. Now whether everyone does it or not is a different matter, but we have to let the public health experts lead to get control of this issue. And, again, we need a national standard that is about a national testing standard where the federal government is supporting what local and state governments need. Very hopeful about the ability of the Senate to pass the HEROS Act. Nancy Pelosi and the House voted that out of the House of Representatives. We need to bring relief, not only to our hospitals but our local and state governments. And of course bring relief to workers and to small businesses. And so that's where we're focused.
