MSNBC's Ed Schultz Declares John Boehner Guilty of 'Treason'
Hard-left MSNBC host Ed Schultz on Monday took his assault on the Republican Party to a new level, declaring that John Boehner is a "traitor" to America for not giving in to Barack Obama on the government shutdown. After railing about how congressional GOP members are trying to destroy the country, the Ed Show anchor delivered his verdict: "And they will shut down the government and they will not pay the bills to get their way. The word is treason, the treasonous John Boehner." [MP3 audio here.]
Schultz bizarrely added, "The United States is at risk right now and I hope that there will be some foreign folks that will step up and say, you really don't want to do this." The definition of "treason" is apparently tied to attacking Obama. On May 24, 2012, Schultz shrieked over a Republican Congressman calling the President "not an American." The anchor berated, "That he would attack the commander in chief verbally? This is treasonous for him to say that he is not an American in his heart."
Treason is a very serious crime, one punishable by death. Is Schultz suggesting the death penalty for Boehner's high crimes?
Perhaps the anchor's viewers are egging him on. On Schultz's Facebook page, one commenter asked:
#Ask Ed. Why is no one talking TREASON? If you'd hard your country economically, harm it's people intentionally, and render aid to the enemy--which is what comes from army, CIA, secret service cuts--then you are a traitor to America. A dozen people were hanged for killing Lincoln. This is a conspiracy to hurt America.
The host closed by wondering if Boehner is "playing Russian Roulette with the American economy."
A partial transcript of the October 7 segment is below:
5:10
ED SCHULTZ: You can always trust Republicans. Nothing has been more crystal clear than right now in our history. They don't care about the success this country has made and they just care about political power. They want that grab. USA Today reports, interestingly enough, that the demand overwhelmed HealthCare.Gov. This is another one they hate. The government expected the site to draw 60,000 simultaneous users. Instead it was drawing 250,000 users at the same time. More than eight million people who apparently weren't sold on ObamaCare just happened to hit that website. They visited the site Monday through Friday of last week. So, I guess the administration did a pretty good job with all the messaging after all. ObamaCare is off to a great start. Fox News hates it. And the people signing up for health care are doing it and love it. And finding out, damn, that is not all that expensive. This is a deal. The fact the Republicans want to use the debt limit to take away your health care is down right dangerous. The Republican mission for years has been to privatize the big three.
This is why they are freaking out about ObamaCare. The popularity is killing them. This is why they're talking about default. They can't let this happen. They want to privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They want to streamline everything into the private sector. They don't want any government involvement whatsoever. And they will shut down the government and they will not pay the bills to get their way. The word is treason, the treasonous John Boehner. The United States is at risk right now and I hope that there will be some foreign folks that will step up and say, you really don't want to do this. Keep in mind, they are big-picture. They want the Ryan plan. That's really what they want. Get yours cell phones out. I want to know what you think. Tonight's question. Is John Boehner, is he playing Russian Roulette with the American economy? Text A for yes, text B for no.
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter.
