UPDATE (Frances Langum): She won't back down. And she is focused on removing Trump from office.
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I swear, I was waiting for a group of nuns to waltz in and start singing "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Rashida?" Instead, after a video went viral of Rep. Rashida Tlaib recounting a conversation with her son, media types went into a frenzy of pearl clutching.
"Newly sworn-in Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib under fire this morning, for remarks calling for President Trump to be impeached. Listen," Alysin Camerota said.
When your son looks at you and says, Mama, look, you won, bullies don't win, and I said baby, they don't, because we are going to go in there and impeach the motherf*cker.
(Maybe it's just me, but my reaction was, "What a good mom!")
"She knows people are holding cameras, taping it, and this was not like a hot mike moment, this was a message, and you can hear a lot of the freshman class is filled with vim and vigor, and so will we see some flame-throwing, is this the style they are coming to Washington they think will be effective?" Camerota said.
Oh noes! (Add pearl clutch here.)
"Particularly on the impeachment issue, yes, this is not the kind of language we are used to hearing from sworn-in members on Capitol Hill, but we know impeachment is one that people around the country think about and obviously for the critics and people not supporters of the president, they do get worked up about this issue, and Democratic members who are running for office or are already in politics, they know that this is an important way to sort of rally the base and is a way to get supporters excited, and I think it's not a mistake that a new member of Congress on the very first day on the job would talk about this issue. I don't know that using that kind of language is necessarily advisable, but, yes, expect members of congress to be talking about impeachment sort of nonstop for the next year.
"I have no problem with swear words, I like to use them at the appropriate times, and David Gregory, we could ask if a Republican on the first day on the job called Barack Obama a motherf*cker, it would be a big deal," John Berman said.
And then some nonsensical pontificating from St. David Gregory. Etc.
What, exactly, do they think this massive blue wave was about, if not to check Trump? What do they suppose Democratic voters want if not impeachment?
As someone who listens to the morning shows as the biggest part of my job, I can tell you the single most infuriating thing about morning cable is that the hosts generally lack (or willfully ignore?) any sense of proportion. The GOP crimes are so immense, ongoing, and heinous that the bobbleheads compulsively seize any opportunity at all to clutch their pearls and pronounce "both sides," lest they be accused of "liberal media bias."
In other words, they lack the professional integrity to proudly defend their own work on the basis of actual facts.
