Ari Melber brought on Ilya Shapiro from the CATO Institute to discuss last night's breaking news about the DOJ's new plan to investigate whether colleges are discriminating against white applicants. Yes, white people. Being discriminated against. Because we all know that white people are discriminated against more than any other group in hist...
Wait. No. That is wrong. Right?
Anyways, this CATO guy really chose the wrong explanation and wow, Ari leaned in and jumped on him. And rightfully so. The exchange went from all smiles and friendly to Ari raising his voice a bit and demanding answers in about 30 seconds.
Here was the exchange:
Melber: Ilya, the Supreme Court has decided this multiple times. Is this really a good place for Conservative energy?
Shapiro: I don't know about Conservative energy, but if we care about civil rights and treating people based on the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin, then absolutely, the Justice Department will look at whether similarly qualified applicants are being treated differently. If this going towards the lawsuit of Harvard, it looks like Asian applicants are 16 less likely to get in compared to Black applicants. I'm not surprised by the way this is being taken care of by the front office because, under the Obama Justice Department, and especially under Venita's tenure, the career officials were only hired if they had time spent in radical left organizations, most of which didn't --
Melber: Hold up.
Shapiro: ...Against white applicants.
Melber: If you want to make those charges on this show you'll have to use more than the word "radical." Do you want to name an organization?
Shapiro: All of these "traditional civil rights organizations" that are the only kind of diversity is different colored liberals.
Melber: I'm not hearing an answer to my question. (DAMN)
Shapiro: The lawyers committee on civil rights. Human rights first.
Melber: Okay. You're giving a bit of a tell. You think human rights first is radical for advocating human rights?
Shapiro: (cornered) We're getting off track.
Melber: (not taking his foot off the jugular) We're not getting off track. You come on tv and call people radical left because they support, your words, human rights. (voice raised, damn good job, Ari).
Shapiro: (backing away) I'm calling them radical because they would not countenance claims someone, that a white person or Asian person can be discriminated against in the context of educational admissions. We don't know what's going on at Harvard and these other places. The Justice Department will investigate.
Melber: It's your words. Your words was "human rights first." I want to get that on the record.
What an intense exchange. Finally, someone is addressing this crazy "radical left" bullshit term being thrown around lately. Next time Ilya comes on The Beat, he better have facts to back up his unfounded assertions. Ari will fact check in real time, unlike other channels (cough cough Fox News cough cough).
Shapiro tweeted after the trainwreck of an interview that he would come prepared with names of these so called "radical left" organizations:
You know, the American Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Human Rights Campaign. I can't wait until he rattles off that list for Ari.
