Tuesday saw the second-ever installment of MSNBC’s The Weeknight, featuring Alicia Menendez, former Kamala Harris spokeswoman Symone Sanders-Townsend, and former RNC chairman and current liberal talking points repeater Michael Steele. The trio of Joy Reid replacements did their best to continue her legacy by wondering if President Trump decided to defund PBS because he thinks Elmo is black.
After playing a 2005 clip where Sesame Street parodied Trump, an aghast Menendez claimed she has been, “trying to figure out why they are so mad at Molly of Denali and Arthur and those wombats were just trying to work it out.”
Answering her own question, she continued, “And this quote from the Department of Education made it very clear. This is a spokesperson for the department who said that the Ready to Learn grants were funding ‘racial justice educational programing,’ and ‘the Trump Department of Education will prioritize funding that supports meaningful learning and improving student outcomes.’ Here's the part I want to talk about, ‘not divisive ideologies and woke propaganda.’”
A normal news program would then highlight how Sesame Street has been trying to teach children that their skin color is “an important part” of who they are or that it, a children’s show defended by public media defenders as a show that simply teaches children the alphabet, celebrates Pride Month.
However, The Weeknight is not a normal news program, and Michael Steele is not a normal Republican. He returned to the 2005 parody, “So, where was what was divisive and woke about this? Because that was 2005. We can actually go back to 1988. We can go back a lot of years where kids sat and watched this, and no one can, not parents then, nor should parents now look at this, Symone, and go, 'Oh, this is just too woke for my kid.'”
Sanders-Townsend did not want to engage with actual arguments. Instead, she just quipped the administration must think Elmo is black, “Look, I think the problem that they have is with the origins of Sesame Street, which is one of the first places that you could, not first places, but they made a concerted effort to show children characters that could identify with themselves and their experience. But also, we're talking about Big Bird and, like, Elmo and, I just like, do they think Elmo is black? Maybe that's it. Like, I don't, I don’t know.”
If Sesame Street had programs where children were taught that DEI initiatives and gender ideology were harmful, nobody at MSNBC would defend it as a simple children’s educational program that teaches kids how to read. The year following the Trump parody episode, President George W. Bush, quite a different type of Republican, tried to cut PBS’s funding too. Did he think Elmo was black or is there more to conservative opposition to public broadcasting than racism?
Sign the petition to help us defund another MSNBC in PBS and NPR at defundpbsnpr.org.
Here is a transcript for the May 6 show:
MSNBC The Weeknight
5/6/2025
7:52 PM ET
SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Yes, nothing says popularity like Sesame Street making a character out of you.
MICHAEL STEELE: Right, I mean, I got a muppet.
SANDERS-TOWNSEND: -- the highest honor.
ALICIA MENENDEZ: -- trying to figure out why they are so mad at Molly of Denali and Arthur and those wombats were just trying to work it out. And this quote from the Department of Education made it very clear. This is a spokesperson for the department who said that the Ready to Learn grants were funding “racial justice educational programing,” and “the Trump Department of Education will prioritize funding that supports meaningful learning and improving student outcomes.” Here's the part I want to talk about, “not divisive ideologies and woke propaganda.”
STEELE: So where was what was divisive and woke about this? Because that was 2005. We can actually go back to 1988. We can go back a lot of years where kids sat and watched this, and no one can, not parents then, nor should parents now look at this, Symone, and go, “Oh, this is just too woke for my kid.”
SANDERS-TOWSEND: Look, I think the problem that they have is with the origins of Sesame Street, which is one of the first places that you could, not first places, but they made a concerted effort to show children characters that could identify with themselves and their experience. But also, we're talking about Big Bird and, like, Elmo and, I just like, do they think Elmo is black? Maybe that's it. Like, I don't, I don’t know.
