What is it with these MSNBC types, and their utter lack of a sense of irony or hypocrisy? Last week, we caught Tiffany Cross on her MSNBC show, agreeing that “dehumanizing or othering” political opponents could provoke violence. This came just moments after she had heaped personal insults on Donald Trump and dehumanized him, describing him as an “animal.”
On Sunday, it was the turn of MSNBC analyst Cynthia Alksne to display her lack of the irony gene. On Jonathan Capehart’s Sunday show, Alksne began by accusing a federal judge of “pandering” to Trump by indicating that she was inclined to grant his request for a special master regarding documents at Mar-a-Lago.
But just moments later, Alksne slobbered over Biden, exclaiming, “isn’t he the greatest!?” That was in regard to Biden having taken a shot at Trump’s assertion that he had declassified documents. Biden mocked Trump, telling a reporter that he had declassified “everything in the world.”
So who’s “pandering” now, Cynthia?
Subbing for Capehart, Michael Steele, the former RNC Chairman turned member of the disgraced Lincoln Project, chuckled his way through Alksne’s adoration of Biden, agreeably interjecting multiple “rights.”
Note: Alksne is married to Democratic strategist Steve McMahon. And earlier in the segment, she offered Dems some strategy of her own. She suggested that the issue of Trump holding documents at Mar-a-Lago be put on hold until after the midterms, and that, for now, Democrats should focus on “Roe, Roe, Roe your vote.”
On Jonathan Capehart’s Sunday Show, MSNBC analyst Cynthia Alksne saying of Biden, “isn’t he the greatest?” shortly after accusing a judge of “pandering” to Trump was sponsored in part by Progressive and 4Imprint.
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC’s The Sunday Show With Jonathan Capehart
8/28/22
10:02 am EDTMICHAEL STEELE: This is a two-parter for you. What do you make, first off, of the intelligence community now having to conduct a review to identify potential national security risks, number one. Start with that.
CYNTHIA ALKSNE: Well, I think it’s very important that they do that now, and they do it in this quiet time before the election. I feel like we need to get all the information to them—they probably have it by now. That’s why this hearing is so ridiculous. Because they already have all the information.
They do the analysis, everything can quiet down for awhile before the election. And we can focus on Roe, Roe, Roe your vote [Alksne and Steele laugh] through the election.
And then, at some point after the election, when the Justice Department will begin to file more, we can deal with what is going to be the fallout for Trump hoarding all these highly-classified documents.
STEELE: And so, the second part of that is, what do you make of the special master approach that the Trump team is taking, and apparently the judge’s willingness to do that?
ALKSNE: I would call it pandering. I think that’s the legal term for this, from the judge. I do not think there’ll be a special master. He’s requested a special master, basically, because Rudy got one, you know, in the attorney-client case.
This isn’t an attorney-client privilege case. They’ve cited the wrong statutes as they’re trying to appoint the special master. There is no special master in executive-privilege cases. And in the presidential records act, in executive-privilege cases, those must be filed in D.C. This is filed in Florida. So it’s in the wrong jurisdiction. And there is no special master for classified-information cases.
So I think it’s only a matter of time when the pandering ends by the Trump judge, that there will not be a special master, and that this is a delay tactic.
. . .
STEELE: Cynthia, the White House has been in a very interesting spot here. Very, a little bit ticklish, I would think. They’ve been careful not to make any statements that would seem to get folks excited, or certainly impede the investigation or be perceived as doing so.
But the president did allow a little slip this week. So.
ALKSNE: Isn’t he the greatest?
STEELE: Yeah, well.
ALKSNE: I mean, he just has to sort of call it like he sees it, right?
STEEE: He did.
ALKSNE: He’s staying away from it.
STEELE: Let’s just take a listen. Let’s see what he said.
REPORTER: President Trump said he declassified all these documents. Could he have just declassified them all?
JOE BIDEN: Why, I just want to know. I’ve declassified everything in the world. I’m president. I can do it all. Come on—he declassified everything. I’m not gonna comment. Because I don’t know the details. I don’t even want to know. I’ll let the Justice Department take care.
STEELE: Real quick.
ALKSNE: He’s out of malarkeys, that’s all. He’s out of malarkeys [Steele laughs.] But that’s definitely true. This whole declassification argument is, is really kind of stupid in two ways. One, it’s not true.
STEELE: Right.
ALKSNE: You cannot declassify everything. Two, if you say, I have the documents and I declassified them, now you’ve admitted you have the documents. Okay, that’s a problem for your prosecution.
STEELE: Right.
ALKSNE: And if you had really declassified the documents, then the New York Times, everybody and anybody could file FOIA requests and all our most sensitive documents would be available for the entire world to see.
STEELE: Right.
ALKSNE: That’s an argument that’s going nowhere. And I understand that Biden has run out of malarkeys, and for good reason.
STEELE: And for good reason. I love it. Thank you, thank you very much, Cynthia Alksne.