Journalists and analysts on MSNBC, Tuesday, suffered a meltdown after the President’s travel ban was upheld in the Supreme Court by a 5-4 margin. Reporters repeatedly brought up the fate of Barack Obama’s failed pick Merrick Garland and fantasized about what would have happened if his nomination hadn’t been “stolen.”
Legal analyst Lisa Green speculated: “You can imagine a hypothetical. Imagine if Garland were on the Supreme Court and not Gorsuch? Would the decision have turned out the same way?” MSNBC Justice and Security Analyst Matt Miller longed for an alternate reality in which the Supreme Court seat belonged to Garland:
You now see Mitch McConnell taking credit because he held this seat open. He stole it from President Obama.... Congratulations to Mitch McConnell. That’s apparently what you wanted.
Talking to Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, MSNBC Live host Hallie Jackson also blamed McConnell:
Do you blame Mitch McConnell at all? Given his, for example, touting today his campaign, at least, that he was able to help get Justice Neil Gorsuch on the Court, and Justice Gorsuch obviouisly voting to uphold, in essence, the administration's travel ban?
MSNBC repeatedly brought on liberal guests for reaction. Senator Cory Booker appeared to complain about the decision: “There's an assault, a moral vandalism going on.” Another Democratic Senator, Mazie Hirono, fretted that, after the decision “the President can pretty much to do whatever he wants to discriminate against groups of people and say this is for national security.”
It was left to Republican guest Michael Steele to talk his MSNBC colleagues back from the ledge:
This isn't a civil rights case. This is constitutional, legal matter about the authority of President do what he did. You can couch it any way you want.... The left have to be careful about how they couch these things because if you take it to a space where nobody is, you're going to be there by yourself.
Some of the guests on MSNBC, Tuesday, sounded like the fictional response from the characters in last season’s American Horror Story. On election night 2016, the show had one character break down in sobs as she screamed: “Oh, my God! Merrick Garland! What's gonna happen with Merrick Garland?”
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC Live
6/6/18
10:38LEE GELERNT (ACLU National Immigrants’ Rights Project): We are very disappointed. I think this opinion will go down historically as something that the country regrets. We believe that there was no question that this was a Muslim ban and it was motivated by the desire to keep Muslims out of the country.
10:45
MICHAEL STEELE: This isn't a civil rights case. This is constitutional, legal matter about the authority of president do what he did. You can couch it any way you want.... The left have to be careful about how they couch these things because if you take it to a space where nobody is, you're going to be there by yourself.
MATT MILLER (MSNBC justice and security analyst): They came up with a national security justification and it was enough to pass legal muster. But let’s be honest! That’s not why they did it. We know why they wanted to do it because it was his initial ban. It was not these countries. It was not North Korea and Venezuela. They dialed it back and came up with something that could pass legal muster but it wasn't what he wanted to. It's not what he called for on the campaign. I want to say something about Mitch McConnell. I'm not surprised by the President's reaction. But let's remember when Donald Trump first came up with this ban in the campaign. People in the Republican Party, leaders in the Republican Party said —HALLIE JACKSON: This is December. I vividly remember because it was full coverage of this.
MILLER: You now see Mitch McConnell taking credit because he held this seat open. He stole it from President Obama. And now he has upheld the eventual successor to President Trump’s Muslim ban. Congratulations to Mitch McConnell. That’s apparently what you wanted.
10:47
SENATOR CORY BOOKER: there's a assault, moral vandalism going on. and I saw it yesterday on our border and I'm going to do everything I can to fight for our values. They are really to me some of the deepest things I love about my country.
10:50
SENATOR MAZIE HIRONO: That the President can pretty much to do whatever he wants to discriminate against groups of people and say this is for national security. The Court ignored all the comments that the president made that he had ever from our country. So there are no checks and balances.
...
JACKSON (to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) ): Do you blame Mitch McConnell at all given his, for example, touting today his campaign, at least, that he was able to help get Justice Neil Gorsuch on the Court, and Gorsuch voting to uphold in essence the administration's travel ban?
...
LISA GREEN (legal analyst): I mean, you can imagine a hypothetical. Imagine if Garland were on the supreme court and not Gorsuch. Would the decision have turned out the same way?
