The launch of Newt Gingrich‘s presidential run elicited plenty of laughs, particularly on the back of the fact that he called any ad that quoted him directly “a falsehood.” Last night, Rachel Maddow explored this double-speak further, arguing that it is a rather commonplace way for Republicans to backtrack on gaffes, citing a new campaign to take a negative ad on Medicare off the air in New Hampshire.
Maddow took several minutes to go through a laundry list of Republican gaffes, beginning with Gingrich and the irony of going on a show called On the Record to take something he said on the record off the record. Then she went to the tale of Rep. Joe Heck, who called Social Security a “pyramid scheme” before claiming he didn’t actually believe that. “Demon possessed him,” Maddow joked. To supplement those two stories, Maddow also explained what Sen. Rand Paul did when he claimed people who attended inappropriate speeches should be “deported or put in prison” (“it was taken out of context,” he claimed before reiterating the same statement) and 2012 presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty on abortion.
But this was all an appetizer to Maddow’s main course: an ad attack Republicans on their stance on Medicare that Republicans have demanded be taken down, as they claim it is a “malicious attempt to mislead voters by spreading false information.” Of course, Comcast has declined to take the ad down. Maddow concluded with a tip for Republicans: “just because you don’t like how your position sounds when it is described out loud doesn’t mean you get to prevent people from describing it.”
The segment via MSNBC below:
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