Who better to enlighten conservatives about their moral failings than MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who up until a few years ago was herself a Republican?
Since going over to the dark side, Wallace has taken to telling her viewers what they want to hear whether or not the message comports with the facts. In August 2019, for example, Wallace made the claim with a straight face that Donald Trump was “talking about exterminating Latinos.” The foundation for that preposterous assertion was a joke the president had made during a visit to Florida where he was addressing the illegal immigration problem. When Trump asked the rhetorical question “How do you stop these people?” an audience member shouted out “Shoot them,” prompting Trump to quip. “That’s only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement.” One could argue the joke was tasteless, but to jump to the conclusion Wallace did is beyond ridiculous.
Wallace herself said something she probably wished she hadn’t in March of this year when she wondered aloud whether the coronavirus had the potential to be “Trump’s Katrina.” “Let’s just lean into that for a minute,” a grinning Wallace encouraged her viewers, adding, “This has the makings, structurally, of the same kind of moment.”
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It will come as no surprise that Wallace’s takeaway from the Biden interview with network colleague Mika Brzezinski revealed the Right’s basest instincts. “The right isn’t running an intellectually honest operation to get to the bottom of whether Tara Reade was victimized,” she told fellow panelists. “The right is running a smear campaign against Joe Biden.”
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace:
"The right isn't running an intellectually honest operation to get to the bottom of whether Tara Reade was victimized. The right is running a smear campaign against Joe Biden." pic.twitter.com/G0QUf9iryN
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 1, 2020
I would be lying if I denied that there is a kernel of truth to that statement. Which is to say that if the Reade accusations turn out to be proven true, the Right will likely benefit politically. That, however, is not a function of intellectual dishonesty but, rather, self-preservation.
For an example of intellectual dishonesty, you need look no further than the Left’s reaction to similar accusations made in 2018 against then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Sen. Dianne Feinstein sat on Christine Blasey Ford’s claim against Kavanaugh for several months, until it was politically expedient to raise. The intellectual dissembling deepened when it came to light that Blasey Ford was hazy on the specifics and could not dredge up a single witness who could corroborate her story. Despite these obvious setbacks, Democrats only dug in further with their insistence that Ford deserved to be believed.
