This is what happens when you have one of these Republican liars on the air and a bit of truth gets injected into the conversation and interrupts their pre-approved right wing talking points.
During a panel discussion on MSNBC Live with Alex Witt this Saturday on whether or not Trump should be worried about impeachment and whether he has the least bit of concern for the 800,000 individuals who have been furloughed from the government shutdown, RNC spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany responded with some of the typical fearmongering we've been hearing from Republicans (and just about every hour on the hour day in and day out over on Fox) about the shooting of a California police officer Cpl. Ronil Singh by an undocumented immigrant.
Sadly for McEnany, former Republican Kurt Bardella countered her with some facts about her party's cynical stance on gun control, and the fact that they only care about someone being shot when they can use the shooting to push for things like Trump's ridiculous border wall, or demonize a person of color. McEnany was none too happy with Bardella for "deflecting the conversation" and lamely accused Bardella of being "triggered" in response.
MCENANY: I think he does have concern for the federal employees, which is why he chose to stay in the Oval Office over the break, while Nancy Pelosi was in Hawaii. It's why, when he was asked yesterday, he said, hey, landlords, you should go easy on these people, because they're a victim, a casualty, of the Democrats.
We need Democrats to come together and realize these facts, in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, 205,000 criminals were apprehended within the interior, 3000 who had homicide charges...
WITT: Kayleigh, is this more about the president being concerned about the 800,000 individuals, or as Senator Lindsey Graham said, that if he gives in, this is going to be the end of his presidency?
MCENANY: It's being concerned about the citizens of our country, all of them, federal employees included, but when you have officer Ronald Singh, who lost his life in California the day after Christmas to an individual with known gang ties who shouldn't have been in this country if not for sanctuary laws, we have a problem. We have to care about those Americans too who have been victims, whose names are rarely mentioned on the airways.
BARDELLA: What about all the people who have been shot and murdered by white Americans in this country? Where is the concern for homeland security and for law enforcement when people are getting killed in this country by guns every day and there's mass gun violence in this country? I don't see Republicans doing anything about that.
MCENANY: You're completely deflecting the conversation.
BARDELLA: I don't see Trump talking about a national emergency when so many people are being murdered by American citizens with guns...
MCENANY: You're deflecting the conversation.
BARDELLA: That is a huge, huge problem (crosstalk) Every time you have a crime that is committed by an illegal immigrant, or someone who is not white, Republicans cannot wait to talk about it (crosstalk) but when a crime is committed by someone with a gun, a white guy with a gun it's crickets from Republicans. It's shameful. It is disgusting.
MCENANY: That's incredible. I mention the name of an officer who lost his life, and it triggers you. You clearly do not want to address the situation...
BARDELLA: How about all the people who got killed in Vegas? How about the people at Parkland? The students in the schools who have been shot up everyday? You don't talk about those people. (crosstalk) Oh, you addressed them. What did you do?! What has been done? You did nothing!
And at that point, host Alex Witt, who was about as useful as a potted plant, changed the subject and moved on to the other guest on the panel.
The first problem here is that they allow someone like McEnany to come on the air in the first place, knowing she's going to do nothing but lie to and gaslight the audience before they even book her, and the second problem is that if you're going to allow her on, one of the other guests, and not the host of the show had to call out the fearmongering and hypocrisy. Conflict for the sake of conflict and having two people argue with no fact checking isn't news. It's a puppet show.
h/t Raw Story
