MSNBC guest Roben Farzad launched into his own rendition of the Backstreet Boys hit &#8220;Quit Playing Games With My Heart&#8221; during a Wednesday afternoon segment with host Katy Tur.
Tur invited Farzad and Mike Memoli to respond after President Joe Biden made yet another appeal to the public on the still rising gas and oil prices. In his speech earlier in the day, he once again called on gas companies to increase production to ease <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-mocks-oil-company-for-proposing-solutions-to-bring-down-gas-prices-as-american-families-suffer/">consumers&#8217; pain at the pump</a> — but he was careful to <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-implies-americas-options-are-either-high-gas-prices-or-putin-controlling-europe/">lay the blame</a> for the high prices at the feet of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Memoli focused on Biden&#8217;s comments about the gas companies, noting that the president has often criticized them for taking in profits while Americans struggle to fill their tanks. &#8220;You heard him talk about the oil companies who are making record profits at a time that Americans are increasingly concerned about record costs,&#8221; he said.
But when it was Farzad&#8217;s turn to weigh in, he burst into song.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
MSNBC guest brings his boy band best to live segment on gas prices and the Biden administration&#39;s treatment of gas companies. <a href="https://t.co/EayXr1uHTO">pic.twitter.com/EayXr1uHTO</a>
&mdash; Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) <a href="https://twitter.com/VAKruta/status/1539711445717368833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Did you see this back and forth between Biden and the CEO of Chevron, and kind of his emotions?&#8221; Farzad asked. &#8220;It was so touchy feely, and I could see, if the oil executives had, kind of more chill to them, they’d be like &#8216;quit playing games with my heart, with my heart.'&#8221;
&#8220;I mean, it’s hard. You want to plan, you want to build refineries, you shut things down. And Biden, in one breath, wants to tell you &#8216;you guys gotta be patriotic, you gotta do more.&#8217; In the other breath, he wants to decarbonize, and you can’t just say let’s just flip these things back online,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;You can’t just go and say let’s flood the market with all of these refined products. We have a refinery bottleneck right now. This takes years of visibility and years of guidance that the White House is pretty loath to give.&#8221;
Tur pushed back, despite being &#8220;thrown&#8221; by her guest&#8217;s singing, asking whether Americans would really feel bad for gas companies if they had to take a hit.
But Farzad is not the only one making that point — that the Biden administration can&#8217;t expect the gas companies to absorb the cost and risk while also promising to put an end to fossil fuels. CNN anchor <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/cnn-anchor-confronts-energy-secretary-on-bidens-oil-company-bait-and-switch/">John Berman</a> raised a similar question just few days earlier.
&#8220;These companies are saying, you know, &#8216;You’re asking me to do more now, invest more now, when in fact five or 10 years from now we don’t think that demand will be there, and the administration doesn’t even necessarily want it to be there,'&#8221; he told Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm last week.

2019 iHeartRadio Music Festival And Daytime Stage

MSNBC Guest Busts Out His Boy Band Best During Live Segment On Gas Prices

MSNBC Guest Sings Backstreet Boys Hit During Live Segment On Gas Prices With Katy Tur

Gas Prices

Joe Biden

Katy Tur

Oil and Gas

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner unloaded on actor Mark Ruffalo after he referred to the ongoing war in Ukraine as &#8220;a gift&#8221; if it would set the world down the path toward adopting green energy.
Faulkner and her co-hosts on the network&#8217;s midday panel show &#8220;Outnumbered&#8221; weighed in on <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/actor-mark-ruffalo-says-ukraine-war-is-a-gift-for-bidens-climate-change-initiatives/">comments</a> Ruffalo made during a recent conversation with MSNBC&#8217;s Katy Tur.
&#8220;Actor and environmental justice warrior, should I put that in quotes, because they all fly,&#8221; Faulkner began before cutting to video of the exchange. &#8220;Mark Ruffalo says the war in Ukraine that has resulted in the thousands of deaths and unspeakable war crimes we see daily has actually been a &#8216;gift&#8217; for President Biden’s clean energy effort.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a moment for President Biden to take this, our momentum, people’s fear, their disgust of the war, their disgust with energy prices and–and use that to solidify a message to the American people that now is the time to transition,&#8221; Ruffalo said of the conflict. &#8220;This where the jobs are, this is where national security is, and we’re going to keep pushing him to do it and this is a gift to the president as we see it and we see him accepting it in such terms.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;I have no doubt why people hate Hollywood.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/HARRISFAULKNER?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HARRISFAULKNER</a> minces no words in response to Mark Ruffalo&#39;s claim that war in Ukraine is a &quot;gift&quot; because it will force the world to pivot to green energy. <a href="https://t.co/7qW2jAuSyQ">pic.twitter.com/7qW2jAuSyQ</a>
&mdash; Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) <a href="https://twitter.com/VAKruta/status/1519366518492082176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;See, I have no doubt why people hate Hollywood,&#8221; Faulkner reacted first. &#8220;That is it right there, just do your job, just play your role! Whatever it is.&#8221;
&#8220;War is not something to be used. War is not something that is a gift, this is something you learn when you are five or maybe ten and it is elementary,&#8221; former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany added, arguing that if Ruffalo was going to make the war in Ukraine about the climate agenda, he was without empathy for those who were going through it.
&#8220;How disgusting that the climate agenda means so much to this man that he is delusional to the point of not having the empathy,&#8221; she said, referencing the <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/jake-tapper-presses-blinken-to-pick-a-side-has-the-u-s-seen-evidence-that-russia-is-committing-war-crimes/">heartbreaking images and stories</a> that had come out of Ukraine in the weeks since Russia first <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/russian-train-station-attack-kills-dozens-of-ukrainian-civilians/">attacked</a>.
&#8220;Do you remember, Harris, and Emily, I know that we were on air together when the pregnant woman was bombed in that maternity hospital. And you pointed out just the blanket over her, it was so sad to watch, unfortunately she did not make it and neither did her child, those are the images of war and that’s what we must bring to light as to what is happening in Ukraine. It is certainly not a gift,&#8221; McEnany continued.

Dr. Oz Visits “Outnumbered Overtime With Harris Faulkner”

‘I Have No Doubt Why People Hate Hollywood’: Harris Faulkner Torches Mark Ruffalo For Calling Ukraine War ‘A Gift’

Climate Change

Harris Faulkner

Kayleigh McEnany

Mark Ruffalo

Readers Pass

MSNBC anchor Katy Tur conceded Tuesday that it was &#8220;insane&#8221; that the United States was not only not energy independent but was dependent on authoritarian regimes for at least a portion of the oil and gas that Americans consumed on a daily basis.
Tur was responding to President Joe Biden&#8217;s Tuesday morning <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-announces-ban-on-russian-oil-imports-in-bid-to-hold-putin-accountable/">announcement</a> that the United States was going to stop purchasing oil from Russia for at least as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to direct his occupation forces to wage war in Ukraine.
As The Daily Wire reported:
<blockquote>President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a ban on the U.S. importing Russian oil and natural gas, declaring that he is “targeting the main artery of Russia’s economy.”
“Russian oil will no longer be accepted at U.S. ports,” the president said in remarks at the White House. “We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war.”
The president said his decision comes after consulting with European allies, although he said some are not able to join the U.S. in banning Russian oil.
</blockquote>
Tur said on her show after that announcement that it was disappointing to realize that the United States was not &#8220;self-reliant&#8221; when it came to energy production.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
MSNBC&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/KatyTur?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KatyTur</a> on the U.S. importing Russian oil: &quot;This just exposes how insane it is that we rely — we rely on energy from authoritarian leaders and we are not self-reliant on our own energy.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/GK9Q8vUEEm">pic.twitter.com/GK9Q8vUEEm</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1501293440990076933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;We only use about 8 percent,&#8221; Tur said, noting that there were a number of European nations who were far more reliant on oil and gas from Russia — and for Russia to truly feel the pinch of losing that source of income, the U.S. would have to be followed by their European allies and partners in turning off the tap from Russia. &#8220;Again, the allies would need to get involved because so much of Europe is dependent on Russian oil.&#8221;
&#8220;It also — something that Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut brought up today was, this just exposes how insane it is that we rely on energy from authoritarian leaders, and we are not self-reliant on our own energy. A lot of talk about why we don’t go green,&#8221; Tur added.
The United Kingdom did join the U.S. in moving away from Russian oil, announcing just ahead of President Biden that the U.K. would terminate all Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/united-kingdom-to-join-u-s-in-banning-russian-oil-report">reported</a>:
<blockquote>The European Union has also been pressured to join in banning oil from Russia. However, a ban by the E.U. is unexpected, with a longer-term <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-07/eu-aims-to-cut-dependence-on-russian-gas-by-almost-80-this-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plan</a> to reduce dependence on Russian oil by 80% this year presented as an alternative.
“There are different dependencies in different countries, and we have to [be] mindful of that,” U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/europe-needs-move-fast-look-other-energy-supplies-says-uks-johnson-2022-03-07/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “You can’t simply close down the use of oil and gas overnight, even from Russia.”</blockquote>
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that most European nations could not simply turn off the tap coming from Russia. &#8220;At the moment, Europe’s supply of energy for heat generation, mobility, power supply and industry cannot be secured in any other way. It is therefore of essential importance for the provision of public services and the daily lives of our citizens,&#8221; he said.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon – Season 8

MSNBC Anchor Admits It’s ‘Insane’ That US Is Not Energy Independent

Energy

Russia

Ukraine

On Friday, MSNBC host Katy Tur appeared to believe that the Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate because of gerrymandering, or the lack thereof, even though gerrymandering has nothing to do with how Senators are elected.
&#8220;In case you missed it, majority doesn’t always rule in this country,&#8221; Tur Said. &#8220;Forty-eight senators voted to remove the President from office. Fifty-two voted to acquit. But the 48 actually represent 12 million more voters than the senators who decided to keep Donald Trump in the White House.”
“We’re not arguing that a simple majority of the population should decide whether to remove an impeached president from office,&#8221; Tur continued. &#8220;That is not in the Constitution. But it does serve to highlight a broad trend in our politics, the outsized influence of rural voters over those concentrated in the cities and suburbs.&#8221;
Tur then brought on Washington Post columnist Philip Bump and asked him, &#8220;So what’s the resolution to that? Is gerrymandering something that would help improve the situation? How does that sort of divide promote consensus in the Senate or even in the House?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, I mean, the only resolution – gerrymandering is not going to do anything because in the Senate, we’re talking about states, right?&#8221; Bump responded. &#8220;You can’t gerrymander states. The only solution is for Democrats to appeal to voters in those states, right?&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/KatyTurNBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KatyTurNBC</a> worries about &quot;gerrymandering&quot; helping Republicans get elected to the SENATE, Washington Post&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/pbump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@pbump</a> has to awkwardly correct her <a href="https://t.co/Jyr37B9O8y">pic.twitter.com/Jyr37B9O8y</a>
&mdash; Kyle Drennen (@kjdrennen) <a href="https://twitter.com/kjdrennen/status/1225874838776090624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kyle-drennen/2020/02/07/katy-tur-fears-gerrymandering-helping-republicans-win-senate-seats">TRANSCRIPT</a>:
<blockquote>KATY TUR: In case you missed it, majority doesn’t always rule in this country. Forty-eight senators voted to remove the President from office. Fifty-two voted to acquit. But the 48 actually represent 12 million more voters than the senators who decided to keep Donald Trump in the White House.
We’re not arguing that a simple majority of the population should decide whether to remove an impeached a president from office. That is not in the Constitution. But it does serve to highlight a broad trend in our politics, the outsized influence of rural voters over those concentrated in the cities and suburbs.
Joining me now, the Washington Post political reporter who pulled those numbers, Philip Bump.
Alright, so impeachment is an example of this. The 48 senators – I mean, 12 million more voters, that’s a lot.
PHILIP BUMP: Yeah. And this is votes, this isn’t population. I think that’s important to note because part of what inspired me to actually do this calculation is Trump and his team were always saying what about the will of these 63 million people who voted for him? Which is a fair point.
TUR: Yeah.
BUMP: But then by contrast, you had of course the voters who supported Hillary Clinton, speaking of the –
TUR: Sixty-five million.
BUMP: Exactly, that discrepancy. But then you had the 69 million who actually supported senators who wanted to see him removed from office.
(&#8230;)
2:41 PM ET
TUR: It’s also – when you look at judges and the way judges have been appointed. Not only the judges that Donald Trump has appointed since he’s been in office. The judges that were not appointed when President Obama was in office, I&#8217;m thinking very – I’m thinking of Merrick Garland in particular.
BUMP: Right. Yeah, no, exactly. What Mitch McConnell has done is he’s exacerbated the problem by weaponizing it, right? So he recognizes that he has this power to act as a check, to use this minority population as a check on what the rest of the country is doing. I mean, the example I use is Brett Kavanaugh. Who Brett Kavanaugh was appointed by a president who lost the popular vote and he was confirmed by a Senate which represented less than half the country, right? I mean, that is a stark example, and it’s one that Mitch McConnell has use repeatedly to act in contrast to the House.
TUR: It’s a bit of a kerfuffle.
BUMP: It is, it is. It’s a bit of a conundrum.
TUR: So what’s the resolution to that? Is gerrymandering something that would help improve the situation? Is – how does that sort of divide promote consensus in the Senate or even in the House?
BUMP: Well, I mean, the only resolution – gerrymandering is not going to do anything because in the Senate we’re talking about states, right? You can’t gerrymander states. The only solution is for Democrats to appeal to voters in those states, right?
And so, one of the things we see, one of the contrasts in American politics right now, is that Republicans are much more conservative than are Democrats liberal. Democrats are getting more liberal over time. But Democrats need to be able to appeal to people in those states, and one of the concerns that a lot of Democrats have is how do we do that well while at the same time effectively representing our more diverse base and our more diverse electorate?</blockquote>

Katy Tur, NBC correspondent and author of  “Unbelievable: My

MSNBC’s Katy Tur: ‘Is Gerrymandering Something That Would Help’ Keep GOP Out Of Senate?

MSNBC

MSNBC news anchor Katy Tur pressed a guest during her show on Thursday about whether Republican lawmakers should be held responsible for gun deaths amid news of a school shooting that was happening at the time in Santa Clarita, California.
&#8220;You were just speaking about senators not showing the courage to put their seats at risk to pass common-sense gun reform, background checks, etc.,&#8221; Tur asked Ret. Special Agent Jim Cavanaugh with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. &#8220;Would you go so far as to hold them responsible for the deaths that are continuing, the lives that are continuing to be lost with gun violence?&#8221;
&#8220;I clearly do. All leaders have a responsibility to act responsibly to help the citizens and it is not responsible to block a debate or to block a vote and that is what&#8217;s happening,&#8221; Cavanaugh replied. &#8220;That is totally irresponsible, that&#8217;s not leadership, it shows no leadership integrity, it is done to protect their seats. They don&#8217;t want to have to vote on the bill because they are afraid in their state or district, their constituents won&#8217;t like the way the vote may turn out.&#8221;
Earlier in the interview, Cavanaugh accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of being too scared to bring a variety of Democrat-backed bills that would enact strict gun control legislation onto the Senate floor for a vote, claiming that Republicans&#8217; seemingly unpopular positions would put them in jeopardy of losing their seats.
&#8220;I would say to Mitch McConnell &#8216;ok boomer, put the bills on the floor — why are you afraid to let the bills be voted on and debated on the floor of the Senate?'&#8221; Cavanaugh said. &#8220;That&#8217;s the most un-American thing that I can think of.&#8221;
&#8220;Soldiers will risk their lives to save children, policemen will, firemen will, but senators won&#8217;t risk their seat to save the children&#8217;s lives,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That is really disgraceful.&#8221;
McConnell, conversely, has put forth that he would hold a vote on the legislation if any of the bills would ultimately be signed by President Donald Trump.
&#8220;If the president is in favor of a number of things that he has discussed openly and publicly, and I know that if we pass it, it will become law, I&#8217;ll put it on the floor,&#8221; McConnell said in September.
However, the overwhelming majority of the rank-and-file Republicans in the Senate are staunch advocates of the Second Amendment, and, accordingly, many of the anti-gun bills that Democrats have passed in the House are unlikely to gain much traction and advance through the upper legislative chamber.
As Cavanaugh talked to Tur, the active shooter situation at Saugus High School was still occurring and little in the way of details had thus far been released by authorities — including who the gunman was, the motivation behind the spree, or how the firearm in question was obtained. Accordingly, it is not clear whether any of the pending legislation would have had any direct impact on the Santa Clarita school shooting.
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="MRC TV video player" src="https://www.mrctv.org/embed/544955" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

A Conversation With Katy Tur

WATCH: MSNBC’s Katy Tur Questions If Republicans Are ‘Responsible For The Deaths’ Of Students

Media Bias

On Wednesday, during a panel discussion on MSNBC featuring Commentary Magazine&#8217;s John Podhoretz and Sirius XM&#8217;s Senior Director for Progressive Programming Zerlina Maxwell, anchor Katy Tur suggested that the American middle class is &#8220;almost&#8221; non-existent.
<blockquote>
TUR: You have this class of people who have more wealth than everybody else combined and almost no middle class any longer, and people who have no money whatsoever who are basically living on the poverty line.
PODHORETZ: We have no middle class any longer?
TUR: We have a much smaller middle class than we historically used to.
PODHORETZ: No, we don&#8217;t.
MAXWELL: Yes, we do.
PODHORETZ: No, we don&#8217;t. That&#8217;s actually not true. But in any case, what you&#8217;re talking about &#8212;
</blockquote>
At this point, Tur cut off Podhoretz, claiming that the federal workers who were impacted by the partial government shutdown were not middle class because they were &#8220;worried about paying [for] groceries.&#8221;
<blockquote>
We just had a government shutdown where 800,000 federal workers were missing one or two paychecks, and a number of them said that they were worried about paying groceries because they couldn&#8217;t &#8212;
</blockquote>
Podhoretz then jumped back in, saying: &#8220;That doesn&#8217;t mean that they&#8217;re not the middle class.&#8221;
Tur replied that &#8220;living paycheck to paycheck is not middle class,&#8221; to which Podhoretz stated: &#8220;Sure it is. Middle class is an income level.&#8221;
<blockquote>
MAXWELL: Yes, but if wages are not growing, and the cost of living is higher, then certainly, the income level that you&#8217;re talking about that used to be middle class is no longer that. You&#8217;re actually working poor.
PODHORETZ: That is just simply incorrect.
MAXWELL: If you are living paycheck to paycheck and you cannot buy food for your family, how is that middle class?
PODHORETZ: The median income in this country has gone up $6,000 in the last two years, from $47,000 to $53,000 a year.
</blockquote>
Tur then asked Podhoretz: &#8220;So everyone&#8217;s doing fine?&#8221;
Podhoretz replied: &#8220;I&#8217;m not saying everyone&#8217;s doing fine, but you just said that there&#8217;s no middle class anymore. That&#8217;s a crazy thing to say, Katy.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe></div>
Tur&#8217;s assertion that there is &#8220;almost no middle class any longer&#8221; is patently false, according to <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/06/the-american-middle-class-is-stable-in-size-but-losing-ground-financially-to-upper-income-families/">data</a> from Pew Research.
In September 2018, Pew released a report regarding the middle class using data from 1971 &#8211; 2016. The data showed that while the middle class shrank by 9% from 1971 to 2016, 52% of Americans still qualify as middle class.
Moreover, from 2011 to 2016, the American middle class remained &#8220;virtually unchanged,&#8221; according to Pew.
From 2000 to 2016, the median income for middle class Americans dipped then rebounded. In 2000, the median middle class income (&#8220;scaled to reflect a three-person household,&#8221; according to Pew) stood at $78,056; in 2010, that dropped to $74,015; by 2016, it had bounced back to $78,442.
Pew states that this appears to be &#8220;a reflection of the lingering effects of the Great Recession and an earlier recession in 2001.&#8221;
According to Mark J. Perry, professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan, some in the middle class have actually moved upward, which accounts for some of the middle class shrinkage.
Setting &#8220;middle class&#8221; at an annual household income of between $35,000 to $100,000 in 2016 dollars, Perry <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/yes-the-us-middle-class-is-shrinking-but-its-because-americans-are-moving-up-and-no-americans-are-not-struggling-to-afford-a-home/">shows</a> that the middle class went from 53.2% of households in 1967 to 42.1% in 2016.
However, the percentage of households earning more than $100,000 annually (upper income earners) increased from just 8.1% to 27.7% over the same period. Additionally, households earning less $35,000 annually (lower income earners) shrunk from 38.7% in 1967 to 30.2% in 2016.
According to Perry:
<blockquote>
&#8230; the 19.6 percentage point increase in the share of high-income U.S. households between 1969 and 2016 (from 8.1% to 27.7%) was a result of: a) an 11.1 percentage point shrinkage in the share of middle-class households (from 53.2% to 42.1%), and b) an 8.5 percentage point shrinkage in the share of low-income households.
</blockquote>
The American middle class may be shrinking, but it still represents a large portion of the populace, and it appears that some of the shrinkage is due to former middle income earners moving up the economic ladder.

MSNBC’s Katy Tur Says There Is ‘Almost No Middle Class.’ She’s Way Off.

Economy

MSNBC&#8217;s Katy Tur exploded at conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson on Thursday after Erickson suggested that people on both ends of the political spectrum needed to tone down the inflammatory political rhetoric.
&#8220;Erick, in the past you&#8217;ve been pretty critical of the president,&#8221; Tur <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2018/10/25/wow-katy-tur-enraged-erickson-schooling-her-how-both-sides-should">said</a>. &#8220;You&#8217;ve condemned him for saying certain things. Why not push him for forcefully right now to be a unifier instead of a divider?&#8221;
After mentioning that President Donald Trump should not go after the media as much as he does, Erickson reminded Tur about the violent political rhetoric coming from the political Left.
&#8220;I also think there are folks on the other side who need to tamp down on the rhetoric as well,&#8221; Erickson said. We had ricin attacks against Susan Collins and Ted Cruz last week and protesters chasing people out of restaurants. I think both sides need to calm down, which is one reason I think it&#8217;s not really helpful right now is who started it.&#8221;
Tur exploded, going into a finger-pointing rant about how she thinks Trump is largely responsible for today&#8217;s political climate.
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xy8GYkq1Axg" width="560"></iframe></div>

Guest Reminds Katy Tur About Democrats’ Violent Rhetoric. She Freaks Out.

A panel on MSNBC&#8217;s &#8220;MTP Daily&#8221; appeared to panic on Monday after reviewing President Donald Trump&#8217;s approval rating &#8212; which stayed the same &#8212; despite the negative news that broke last week about Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.
&#8220;Last week was a tidal wave of bad news for this presidency and this president, and his approval rating stayed the same,&#8221; Katy Tur <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brad-wilmouth/2018/08/27/msnbc-freaks-out-deluded-trump-supporters-refuse-desert-him">said</a> while visibly frustrated. &#8220;So I wonder &#8212; I mean, if that&#8217;s not going to move the needle, is this John McCain thing going to move the needle?&#8221;
&#8220;And forgive me for being skeptical because I was under the impression, as was most people, that when Donald Trump came out and said he wasn&#8217;t a war hero &#8212; he likes the guys that don&#8217;t get caught &#8212; back in 2015, that people would care,&#8221; Tur continued. &#8220;And when I went out and I talked to Republican voters, they didn&#8217;t care at all.&#8221;
MSNBC contributor Jonathan Alter responded by claiming that Republicans do not care about Trump&#8217;s behavior, saying that Trump supporters are &#8220;deluded.&#8221;
Tur whined as she could not wrap her mind around the fact that the overwhelming majority of Republicans showed strong support for the president.
&#8220;Eighty-eight percent of Republicans still support him &#8212; 88 percent,&#8221; Tur lamented. &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, I just &#8212; I start to wonder when we have these conversations and we say, &#8216;Well, this is going to be the breaking point,&#8217; I wonder if there is a breaking point. I wonder if enough people in this country find the actions and the behavior repulsive enough to want to change what&#8217;s going on.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe></div>

WATCH: MSNBC Reviews Trump’s Approval Rating. Freak Out Ensues.

Donald Trump

Trump Administration

In what can only be described as a severe case of a lack of awareness, during Wednesday&#8217;s edition of &#8220;MSNBC Live,&#8221; anchor Katy Tur and Hollywood director Rob Reiner stood aghast that supporters of President Trump would dare to heckle CNN correspondent Jim Acosta at a rally in Tampa, Florida.
After expressing indignation that President Trump would dare retweet the viral video, Tur said, &#8220;The President hasn&#8217;t said a word to his supporters to tell them to cool off, to chill out, to calm down. He stokes this,&#8221; <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2018/08/01/self-centered-lefties-katy-tur-rob-reiner-showcase-why-people-hate">MRCTV</a> reports.&#8203;
Tur then launched into a rant in which she blamed Trump for how his supporters view the mainstream media.
&#8220;When you don&#8217;t like the answer, you&#8217;ll boo the messenger, which is [what] we saw happened to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/33892/cnns-jim-acosta-frets-about-trump-fans-anti-media-ben-shapiro">Jim Acosta</a> last night,&#8221; she declared. &#8220;People don&#8217;t want to hear the facts about the President it seems, or Donald Trump supporters don&#8217;t want to hear the facts. A lot of them tune us out, won&#8217;t believe a single thing that they say. They believe what he says over us, which is, you know, propaganda, when you don&#8217;t have somebody to push back or fact-check or correct the spin, or they&#8217;ll believe their friends and family, but they&#8217;re not going to believe the media, even if the media is comporting with what they&#8217;re seeing with their own eyes.&#8221;
Rob Reiner readily agreed with her. 
&#8220;You just have to keep pounding away. There&#8217;s nothing else you can do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I mean, look, it doesn&#8217;t speak to the mainstream media. They&#8217;re just angry. Their people are angry, and he will feed them whatever they want to keep that anger going and you see it in the rallies. He actually calls for, you know, this outrage and take it out against the media, take it out against immigrants, take it out against whomever you want. That&#8217;s what he does. He keeps stirring it up. But you have to stay at it, you have to stay at it. There&#8217;s no other way.&#8221;
&#8220;Bring the fact checking up to 11,&#8221; Tur chimed in.
Reiner continued: &#8220;Well, if you can, I mean if you can. If you don&#8217;t break through, we are going to have&#8230; we are in right now, it might be the last stage of a civil war. The latest battle is being fought. Hopefully it won&#8217;t be fought physically, but we are more divided than we ever have been and we&#8217;ve got a President who is backed up by media. Presidents have always spewed propaganda. Liberals, Democrats, Republicans, everyone has.&#8221;
What better example to demonstrate why Middle America feels such distrust in today&#8217;s media than a New York news darling and a Hollywood elitist whining about Trump supporters at a rally? These two talking heads are both leftists, worth millions of dollars each, and not once in their conversation did they offer any outside perspective or hint of sympathy for the millions who have a hard time trusting the media. 
Their message: &#8220;These ignorant rubes need us smart people to fact-check their stupidity.&#8221; Here&#8217;s guessing that&#8217;s not going to resonate well. No wonder audiences are turning to alternatives. 
You can watch the clip below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe></div>

WATCH: Katy Tur, Rob Reiner Prove Exactly Why Americans Distrust The Media

Media

Rob Reiner

MSNBC&#8217;s Katy Tur falsely claimed on Monday that the Republican Party was opposed to arming Ukraine in their opposition of Russia and later admitted she didn&#8217;t know what she was talking about after she was corrected on air.
&#8220;At the Republican National Convention, the Republican party decided not to arm Ukraine,&#8221; Tur said.
&#8220;But Ukraine is armed today, Katy,&#8221; former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg fired back. &#8220;They are armed now.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; Tur said after becoming frustrated.
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/12/20/trump-administration-approves-lethal-arms-sales-to-ukraine/?utm_term=.480a20fab08e">The Washington Post</a> reported last December that the Trump administration &#8220;approved the largest U.S. commercial sale of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine since 2014.&#8221;
The <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/msnbcs-katy-tur-responds-news-gop-trump-admin-armed-ukrainians-dont-know/">Free Beacon</a> notes that the Trump campaign changed the language in the GOP platform in 2016 to state the U.S. would give Ukraine &#8220;appropriate assistance&#8221; against Russia instead of &#8220;lethal defensive weapons.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CojT-zFWwwo" width="560"></iframe></div>

WATCH: Katy Tur Makes False Statement About GOP Then Admits She’s Clueless

MSNBC&#8217;s Katy Tur called out Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Friday for insinuating that President Donald Trump was a terrorist because of his immigration policies.
&#8220;The problem is if we give in on this, then he will take other vulnerable populations hostage all across this country as a means of getting the rest of his agenda done,&#8221; Murphy said.
&#8220;So you&#8217;re saying no compromise whatsoever with the president when it comes to his border wall, no compromise for Dreamers, no compromise for this policy that&#8217;s currently ripping families?&#8221; Tur asked.
&#8220;Remember Katie, we were very willing to compromise for protection of the Dreamers, the Senate Democrats endorsed a proposal that would have given the president substantial funding towards the wall that he wants in exchange for protection for these kids,&#8221; Murphy replied. &#8220;But again, these kinds of tactics that he&#8217;s employing, the terrorizing of these little kids &#8230; he should just be a good person, he should be a human being and he should stop terrorizing these kids.&#8221;
&#8220;Senator, it sounds like what you&#8217;re saying is you don&#8217;t negotiate with terrorists and you&#8217;re calling the president a terrorist in this scenario,&#8221; Tur shot back. &#8220;You&#8217;re saying that he is terrorizing kids, the policy is don&#8217;t negotiate with terrorists because when you give them what they want they&#8217;ll only hold more people hostage, that is what you just said.&#8221;
Murphy then twice repeated the claim that Trump was terrorizing kids while explaining that he did not call the president a terrorist of children.
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WlU_aoTQ4bE" width="560"></iframe></div>

WATCH: Katy Tur Calls Out Democrat Senator For Suggesting Trump’s A Terrorist

Chris Murphy

Appearing on &#8220;Meet The Press&#8221; on Sunday, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and National Review editor Rich Lowry gave a sharp reply to NBC correspondent Katy Tur after she tried to defend <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31306/samantha-bee-apologizes-ivanka-trump-so-does-tbs-ben-shapiro">Samantha Bee&#8217;s</a> vulgar attack on Ivanka Trump. 
&#8220;This spark of the culture wars with Roseanne and Sam Bee. Is this about our inability to deal with race in this country?&#8221; said host Chuck Todd. &#8220;That&#8217;s what the Left sort of sees it as, Joshua. Or, is this about a double standard in that we sort of hold&#8230; we&#8217;ll hold folks on the Right more accountable with their bad tastes than we will on the Left?&#8221;
After hearing from commentator Joshua Jordan, Noonan insisted that public figures need to take responsibility for their comments in the public square. 
&#8220;I am very glad to see a certain amount of backlash against them, almost as if the American people are saying, &#8216;Stop it already, this is terrible. You&#8217;re making it worse,'&#8221; said Noonan.
Tur responded by attempting to gloss over Bee&#8217;s comment and turn the conversation into a condemnation of the Trump administration. 
&#8220;I do think what&#8217;s unfortunate here is that the Samantha Bee controversy, it&#8217;s now overshadowing what is the story that she was trying to bring attention to, which is a story that families are being ripped apart at the border,&#8221; she opined. &#8220;That this administration is claiming there is a new law when it&#8217;s just a policy and they&#8217;re taking families apart even when families are coming in, according to reporters, asking for asylum. That is a real issue. That is not being covered because we&#8217;re all talking about Samantha Bee using a word that she should not have used.&#8221;
Noonan did not let that stand. 
&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t just a word,&#8221; she retorted. &#8220;It was an obscene personal attack &#8230; and that did obscure her point, but that also showed maybe she wasn&#8217;t serious about it.&#8221;
Lowry weighed in by dismissing the Left&#8217;s attempts to blame Trump for Barr&#8217;s tweet and lamenting the failure of so many in key institutions to take responsibility for being better &#8220;stewards.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think Samantha Bee and Roseanne are really comparable,&#8221; said Lowry. &#8220;I think some people are saying Trump enabled Roseanne Barr. She has been a kook for 20 years. And her Twitter timeline has been grotesque for 10 years or however long she&#8217;s been on Twitter. But Samantha Bee was hired to be a partisan vulgarian. And underlining something Peggy said, my friend Yuval Levin of National Affairs makes a point, the problem with institutions: no one considers themselves an insider anymore has a responsibility for being better and being a steward. Everyone considers themselves to be an outsider.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2018/06/03/wsjs-peggy-noonan-scolds-tur-downplaying-bees-obscene">H/T Newsbusters</a>
<div> </div>

Menu