Last week, MSNBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard gushed over the “peaceful” anarchists and protesters in Seattle. (The shooting there makes that statement look even more ridiculous.) He these people were.
But on Tuesday, the same Hillyard argued with Trump supporters at a rally in Phoenix, lecturing them about masks. Egged on by Craig Melvin, he asked, “Why not wear a mask?”
An unidentified woman called out the media hypocrisy on this issue: “It's not about the mask. It's about the hypocrisy that it's okay for tens of thousands of people to go and riot, to go and protest, but you cannot have a group of a thousand?... This is not okay?”
Speaking of protesters another man challenged, “Why isn't the liberal news media focusing on them not wearing a mask?” The words “liberal media” certainly aren't a phrase one years often on MSNBC.
Hillyard peppered the attendees: “Can I ask you, sir, why not you, yourself?.... Does it concern you?”
This is quite a contrast to how Hillyard covered the so-called Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Seattle. He hyped the “very peaceful week on these streets,” adding, “This is not some hostile takeover.” On June 13, he made the mistake of calling the atmosphere similar to a “street festival.”
The protesters proceeded to yell at him causing Hillyard to immediately retreat: “With an intentional purpose.” Hillyard is also the same reporter who bizarrely praised a Biden rally in March as somehow like “an Avengers sequel.”
A transcript of the exchange is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC Live
6/23/2020
11:17 AM ETVAUGHN HILLYARD: Do you mind if I ask you guys, why not wear a mask?
WOMAN: It's not about the mask. It's about the hypocrisy that it's okay for tens of thousands of people to go and riot, to go and protest, but you cannot have a group of a thousand, or, I don’t know, but this is not okay?
HILLYARD: Are you concerned about your own health?
MAN: Why don't you cover the protesters and ask why they don't wear a mask? Why didn’t you do that?
WOMAN: Yeah!
HILLYARD: The protesters at those events are wearing masks. I’m asking you —
MAN: I’m asking you guys a question. Why don’t you —
HILLYARD: I'm asking you a question why aren't they wearing a mask?
MAN: Why isn’t the liberal news media focusing on them not wearing a mask?
HILLYARD: Can I ask you, sir, why not you, yourself?
MAN: I’m asking you a question. You didn't answer my question. Answer my question first.
HILLYARD: Would you like to offer — Does it concern you here?
WOMAN: No, it does not concern me.
HILLYARD: Why not?
WOMAN: Because we've had this virus in the states for how long? Do you think you haven't come across somebody that hasn't had it.
