Jen Psaki Draws Heat From Conservatives Over Segment Arguing GOP is Pitting Muslim-Americans Against Trans Community
Jen Psaki is coming under fire from the right over a segment on her MSNBC show arguing that the GOP is trying to pit Muslim-Americans against the trans community.
In a five-minute commentary during her show on Sunday, the former White House press secretary claimed Republicans are trying to “recruit” Muslim-Americans and rally them against the trans community.
“Lately, I’ve been noticing the reemergence of a very old GOP playbook that hearkens back to President Richard Nixon’s infamous southern strategy,” Psaki said. “During his campaign for president in 1968, the Republican party made a concerted effort to reach white southerners, who used to vote for Democrats, by playing to their fears of African-Americans and the civil rights movement. And it worked, by pitting one group of Americans against another, the GOP successfully managed to split off southern whites from the Democratic Party.
“Now, decades later, the right-wing is reviving that same playbook, this time with Muslim-Americans and trans people. Hear me out, the GOP is trying to recruit Muslim-Americans, a community that makes up less than two percent of the population, against another tiny marginalized group of Americans, transgender people.”
Psaki referenced former President Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States in 2015, and support for that position from Fox News host Laura Ingraham. Psaki then played a recent segment from Ingraham in which she said, “Other people of faith have been waiting for the Muslims to step up on this issue.”
“Just to summarize, the right-wingers, the conspiracy theorists, the birthers, they now want us to forget the years they spent fear mongering about Muslims and Islam,” Psaki said. “Ten years ago, standing against Sharia law was the key GOP litmus test. Now that litmus test seems to be how fervently you oppose transgender people.”
The segment got traction on Twitter after Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) shared the clip and lauded Psaki.
“A brilliant commentary by @jrpsaki of how the GOP is pitting Muslim Americans against the trans community. They are also trying to pit African Americans against Asian Americans,” Khanna wrote. “They divide. But the next generation will realize Obama’s vision of a United States of America!”
But conservatives on social media roundly criticized Psaki’s take.
“Because black people can’t think for themselves and devout Muslims would otherwise tolerate transgenderism?” Breitbart’s Joel Pollak wrote. “The fact that a supposedly enlightened and independent mind like @RoKhanna parrots (very white) @jrpsaki’s dorky racial propaganda tells you how far gone the Democrats are.”
Much of the other criticism from the right was similar in tone and substance:
