Rachel Maddow Calls Out GOPers BLATANT LIES on Obama Terror Policy

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 07:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QnyVoYfDEc   Posted on YouTube: February 04, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 04, 2010 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 1418

 
MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show - 3 February 2009: Rachel shows the multiple WRONG statements and lies by GOP concerning the Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab investigation and policy, including Andrea Mitchell fact-checking Sen. Susan Collins on her statements which are clearly lies.

MADDOW: "Republicans really thought they had a winning issue in the attempted Christmas day bombing. But their efforts to politicize the incident seem now to be blowing up in their faces, er, underpants... uh, it's just not working out. Sorry. :-)"

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (VIDEO): "Less than one hour - that's right - less than one hour. In fact, just 50 minutes. That's the amount of time that the FBI spent questioning Abdulmutallab, the foreign terrorist who tried to blow up a plane on Christmas day. Once afforded the protection our Constitution guarantees AMERICAN citizens, this foreign terrorist lawyered up and stopped talking.

GRAPHIC: "WRONG" (buzzer)

MADDOW: "Yeah, you know, that's just TOTALLY wrong. That was Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, delivering the Republican Party's weekly address on Saturday, and she's really, really factually wrong - a lot - just in that clip.

For starters, the right to have a lawyer does not just apply to American citizens. It applies to anyone being tried in America. That's why we call it the American criminal justice system. Even immigrants get lawyers. Even illegal immigrants get lawyers, if they're tried in America. Also, even if the alleged Christmas Day bomber were being held as a enemy combatant, under the rules of war, like Sen. Collins says he should be, he would STILL be entitled to a lawyer.

Also, the would-be bomber apparently has been talking to authorities, even with his Miranda rights having been read to him.

So, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again. Want to give it another shot, Sen. Collins?"

COLLINS (VIDEO): "When the Obama administration decided to treat Abdulmutallab as an ordinary criminal, it did so without the input of our nation's top intelligence officials. The Director of National Intelligence was not consulted. The Secretary of Defense was not consulted. The Secretary of Homeland Security was not consulted. The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center was not consulted. They would have explained the importance of gathering ALL possible intelligence about Yemen, where there is a serious threat from terrorists whose sights are trained on this nation."

GRAPHIC: "WRONG" (buzzer)

MADDOW: "I, yeah, I hate to hammer this home here, but, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong, wrong. Actually NBC's Andrea Mitchell hosted Sen. Collins on her show today, so we're just going to let Andrea take care of the fact-check on this one."

ANDREA MITCHELL (VIDEO): "What the White House would tell you, and what they've been briefing reporters on - and we know there was a briefing last night - is that, first of all, there was a national security meeting which involved all of the principals, all of them signed off on the decision to proceed in a non-military way. Secondly, they say the Nigerian family would not have cooperated if this had not been done the way it was done. Thirdly, they point out, you know, even ignoring all the precedents in the Bush administration where they did proceed in the same exact fashion, the fact is that he would have been accorded an attorney because he was arrested in the United States. So, even if they would have proceeded under military procedures, he would have had a lawyer who would have been telling him, if not the Miranda rights, not to talk. Don't they have a point there?"

COLLINS (VIDEO): "Well, first of all, you've asked me about six different questions in repeating the allegations that the White House has made. Look, the military detainee and trial system provides much more flexibility and would have allowed him to be questioned without a lawyer telling him what to reveal and what to conceal."

GRAPHIC: "WRONG" (buzzer)

MADDOW: "Wrong. Wrong. Andrea Mitchell just said that was wrong. Just ignoring all the evidence of your complete and total wrongness does not make you less wrong.

Sen. Collins, for all of her astounding wrongness on this issue, is not the only Republican tripping and falling into the wrong in this political battle over the attempted Christmas Day bombing. Here, for example, is South Carolina's Lindsay Graham, along with Fox News' Greta van Susteren. And the two of them, I will warn you in advance, here are just plain making things up."

VAN SUSTEREN (VIDEO): "Either he got himself a deal, right up front, a good deal, or he got a lousy lawyer. I understand his lawyer's good, so he must have gotten some deal."

GRAHAM (VIDEO): "Well, I used to be a military lawyer, a defense lawyer, I used to be a defense lawyer in the civilian world... yeah, I wouldn't let my guy talk until I knew it was to his benefit."

GRAPHIC: "WRONG" (buzzer)

MADDOW: "Ehh... Wrong? Wrong. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to this particular reckless speculation in a statement today, saying, in part, 'Abdulmutallab has not been offered anything..." In other words, there is not deal, but thanks for playing Sen. Graham. Then there is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell..."

McCONNELL (VIDEO): "The administration still appears more interested in managing its message then explaining to the American people and to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle why an al-Qaeda-trained terrorist fresh from Yemen, and caught in the act of attempting to blow up an airliner, was handed over to a lawyer after a 50-minute interview."

GRAPHIC: "WRONG" (buzzer)

MADDOW: "Wow! Amazing. Wrong again. As a matter of fact, just today the Attorney General released a letter he wrote to Mitch McConnell explaining, in painstaking detail, the hows and whys of the administration's case against Mr. Abdulmutallab...

- snip -

Of course, Republicans making claims like this to try to score political points on the Abdulmutallab case is nothing new. They have been doing that ever since Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra, the human sieve, sent out a fundraising letter three days after the attempted attack trying to raise money off of the attempted murder of Americans.
What is new is the administration finally releasing information about the case to rebut these now longstanding and utterly wrong political charges.

What took them so long?"

[opihimoimoi]

1. This lady is Civics challenged....she is talking outta her ass....

[skyounkin]

2. LOL-

Collins is such a goddamn ass-clown.

[democracy1st]

3. K & R

[gadjitfreek]

4. Hi. We're Republicans. We create the truth for you...

...and then you believe it.


The Force has a strong influence on the weak-minded.

[dotymed]

10. Please President Obama

At least, have THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE re-instated, or forget Democratic political wins. The majority of Americans have been so "educated" on propaganda, that they believe everything said on FOX tee vee. Hugo Chavez, closed down a tee vee station in Venezuela that was similar to FOX, because of their anti-government lies and propaganda. Too bad he didn't just legislate that they report facts and allow differing opinions. You can just have your FCC appointee re-instate the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. Reagan had his appointee revoke this doctrine that had (until then) been in place since the inception of broadcasting governance. It is a rule that helps to prevent lies and propaganda being "fed" to Americans. Which is the only reason that FOX exists. Please, it's a simple solution to one of our worst problems....propaganda. We the people, OWN the airwaves.

[spicegal]

5. The Republicans are totally shameless and disgusting. The WH and Dems need to play offense, and do

more of what RM is doing. Name them and shame them. Name them and shame them. Do it often. Shine light on their lies and keep up the pressure.

[activa8tr]

6. Republicans LIE? Shocking!

Rachel ROCKS!

[Enthusiast]

7. If there is anything I have

learned about the M$M it's that it doesn't matter that Republicans are wrong.

We endured eight years of criminally wrong that the country will never recover from. We had nothing but soft ball questions from the M$M the entire time while they repeated all the official talking points endlessly.

From my perspective this has not moderated one iota since the election results in 2006 and 2008.

A one sided biased M$M remains our greatest problem.

[mwb970]

8. Do republicans have absolutely no scruples or morals at all?

Or are they all such uneducated idiots that they actually believe the endless BS that they spew day after day after day? Why do we have to put up with constant lying from the right?

:shrug:

What a truly despicable group of people these conservative "leaders" are. I wish they were all gone.

[zbdent]

9. From what I understand, the current trend is referring to Rachel as a "guy" or a "man" ...

I guess that she's tougher than most of those Repugs ... so they're afraid of her ...

[JoePhilly]

11. Orin Hatch told the same lies on Andrea Mitchell's show too ... but ...

She failed to smack him down.

I think Andrea Mitchell did a weak job rebutting these GOP dopes.

[activa8tr]

16. Andrea Mitchell is too concerned with how she looks on the air, not

what nonsense is coming out of the mouths of Rethuglicans.

[oedura]

12. I find it annoying that we just keep saying these people are "wrong"...

...as if they're just confused.

Is it a horrible thing to just call a bald-faced liar a bald-faced liar?

[olegramps]

14. I totally argree with you. They should be called damn liars.

[olegramps]

13. When the Fourth Estate is compromised, the death of democracy is at hand.

None of the right wing propagandists should be allowed to disseminate their outright lies without stringent condemnation by responsible news commentators.

If the media was doing a credible job those such as Limbaugh and FOX would have been totally discredited and driven out of business years ago. If they had been doing a credible job Bush's ties to the PNAC neo-cons who were intent on invading Iraq would have been exposed and he would have never been in a position to bankrupt the nation. This is the sad state of our nation in which citizens are being manipulated by unscrupulous charlatans who are willing to sell their soul for price.

[activa8tr]

17. Yeah we should have something like the V-chip on our TeeVee's,

for VERIFICATION FAILURE...it will flash a red "LIES" warning on the screen, start sounding a siren, and turn off the Republican's microphone...as soon as one lie leaves their mouth.

[Cha]

15. Kick