WATCH: MSNBC Host Interviews Maxine Waters, Spends Nearly Two Full Segments Teeing Up GOP Soundbites for Her to Dunk On
An MSNBC anchor interviewed a member of congress on his program Sunday and spent the majority of the conversation simply teeing up cable news clips one after the next — essentially inviting that House Democrat to dunk on the opposing party for nearly two full segments.
Jonathan Capehart, host of The Sunday Show on MSNBC, spoke with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on this week’s edition of his program and asked her to weigh in on a series of cable news clips featuring Republicans making outrageous comments. First up was House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — who said earlier in the morning on Fox News that “we have covid spiking, closed schools, and a crippled economy, and the Democrats’ number one focus is still exactly where they’ve always been, H.R. 1, to change the election laws.”
“I would love, congresswoman, to hear your reaction to your fellow Californian,” Capehart said.
“I think it is absolutely shameful that he’s carrying [former President Donald] Trump’s lie,” Waters replied. “I think it’s absolutely shameful that he’s coming on this morning with talking points and undermining voting rights.”
Capehart immediately transitioned to comments from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in which he more-or-less groveled for forgiveness to Tucker Carlson after calling the January 6 attackers “terrorists.” The MSNBC anchor seized on Cruz calling his own phrasing “sloppy and dumb.”
“Congresswoman, sloppy?” Capehart asked, laughing.
Waters blasted the Texas senator, but also seemed to mildly critique Capehart’s line of inquiry.
“I don’t even know why we pay any attention to him,” Waters said.
Capehart proceeded to play a clip of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) telling Steve Bannon that he is “proud of the work” he did on January 6, 2021 and is “ashamed of nothing.” At that point, the MSNBC host gave up even asking questions.
“Okay congresswoman, have at it,” he said.
“They are not representing even their constituents,” Waters said. “And so Gaetz needs to shut up.”
If devoting the entire first segment of their conversation to GOP soundbites wasn’t enough, Capehart came out of commercial and played yet another clip of a Republican making an absurd remark – this time enlisting the help of two panelists, along with Waters, to make some very obvious points. In an interview with Bartiromo, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) dramatically downplayed the events of January 6 and floated a baseless conspiracy theory about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) being complicit.
“It was a false narrative [that] there were thousands of armed insurrectionists,” Johnson said. “There weren’t. That is not what an armed insurrection would look like … That was a narrative that quite honestly served both sides. Anybody that was responsible for Capitol security was pretty well happy to sign on to thousands of armed insurrectionists — because what could they possibly have done? And the commission in the House now is a joke. They’re not asking what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it.”
“Jesus take the wheel,” Capehart said after the clip. He then set up all of his panelists to dunk on Johnson, adding, “I don’t even know what kind of nonsense that was.”
After all three panelists mocked Johnson, Capehart commendably moved on to an issue of substance — the debate over whether to eliminate the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation. This, unquestionably, was a far more productive use of the congresswoman’s time than simply having her do the Republican-bashing that MSNBC hosts can very capably handle themselves.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
