According to Thomas Roberts, Vice President Biden is a political god who
deserves no criticism. That’s the message the host sent to former Rick
Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley on MSNBC Live Tuesday.
The
two men were discussing the political implications for Mitt Romney
attending a fundraiser with Donald Trump when Gidley compared the
bombastic Trump to gaffe-prone Vice President Biden.
"One of your anchors said how can Mitt Romney stand next to a guy who
can embarrass him at any moment. Barack Obama can be embarrassed at any
moment by a guy he made Vice President," Gidley argued to Roberts.
[MP3 audio here.]
Apparently, referencing Joe Biden in the same sentence as Donald Trump
is unacceptable to Thomas Roberts who went off on Gidley.
A clearly
angered Roberts retorted, “Are you really going to compare Joe Biden,
one of this country's most dignified and greatest political leaders that
can cross the bridge, getting to both sides of the aisle and compare
him to a Donald Trump? Do you really want to say that?!”
Roberts, who has consistently worn his liberal ideology on his
shirtsleeve was unapologetic in his defense of Biden, insisting Gidley
was defending Trump's birther nonsense when in reality he was just
pointing out liberals' double standard.
Gidley held his own throughout the interview, refusing to be cowed by Roberts's bullying. [For more, see Mediaite.]
Below is the relevant transcript courtesy of MRC intern Matt Vespa.
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
May 29, 2012
11:24 a.m. EDT
THOMAS ROBERTS: Speaking of the Rominee tonight Mitt Romney is
expected to cross the magic number of 1,144 number of delegates that he
needs to clinch the nomination once Texas Republicans cast their primary
vote ballots. That’s all happening today. Amanda Terkel, Morris Reed is
a democratic strategist And Hogan Gidley national communications
director for Rick Santorum's presidential campaign. Its great to see all
of you this morning and I just want to get this out of the gate The DNC
has released this statement in advance of today’s event saying once
again Mitt Romney is failing the moral leadership test instead of
rejecting Donald Trump's birther conspiracy theories and divisive
attacks. He’s endorsing them by campaigning and fund-raising with him.
Hogan I want to start with you. Mitt Romney says he doesn't agree with
everybody who supports him, but if the president appeared with Bill
Maher, who has said some really hateful things about Romney’s religion,
wouldn't Republicans be just as outraged?
HOGAN GIDLEY: I'm sure they would be. But, I mean, this whole issue
is a little bit ridiculous. I mean, speaking from doing these
presidential campaigns. I mean, obviously he can't be held responsible
for things Donald Trump says. But, earlier on the shows on MSNBC, one of
your anchors actually said how can Mitt Romney stand next to a guy who
could embarrass him at any moment? And I'm thinking to myself, well,
Barack Obama could be embarrassed at any moment by a guy he made vice
president. So, I mean, these things happen. You can't be held
accountable for everything people who support you say and people who
support you do. And uh- this is just one of those deal where there are a
lot of people who support President Obama who think George Bush was a
conspirator on 9/11. It's just silly.
ROBERTS: Hogan, are you really going to throw Joe Biden under the bus
and compare him to- Are you really going to compare Joe Biden, one of
this country's most dignified and greatest political leaders that can
cross the bridge, getting to both sides of the aisle and compare him to a
Donald Trump? Do you really want to say that?
GIDLEY: I'm not comparing him to Donald Trump.
ROBERTS: You’re going to compare him to the “gaffetasticness” of Donald Trump?
GIDLEY: No, someone on your network said they couldn't believe that
Mitt Romney would put Trump next to him because he would embarrass-
ROBERTS: Yeah and you just that said you just said that the Vice President is just as prone to these gaffes.
GIDLEY: He has embarrassed the president on many occasions. He has
embarrassed the president on many occasions. This is all very, very
silly stuff. Look, let's get focused on the issues here. You can't be
held accountable for what people who support you say or what they do.
ROBERTS: It’s one thing to not be held accountable, but it is another
thing to thrust yourself on to the national stage and appear with them
appear with them in what will be millions of dollars cash grab in Vegas.
I mean shouldn't you speak up or try to put a..put uh an end to all of
this, as you call nonsense, and get back to the real issues. I mean
Donald Trump was on CNBC this morning talking about just this.
GIDLEY: But he has! He has disavowed the birther movement. There’s no
question about that and Donald Trump is not known really for the birther
movement. He is known for the economy. He is known for trying to turn
around profits and make money in this country and live the American
dream and help others do the same. And he thinks Mitt Romney is the one
who can do that by turning this economy around. So he supports Mitt
Romney.
ROBERTS: I'm a little bit surprised that you can come on here and
defend Donald Trump and say he is not keeping the birther conspiracy
alive when he was just on CNBC this morning keeping it alive.
GIDLEY: That’s not what I said I said he’s not known for that. if
anything he’s known for the economy and trying to make money in this
country and that’s why he’s supporting Mitt Romney because he believe he
can turn the economy around. Its just one issue in a lot of things that
I’m sure Mitt Romney and Donald Trump don’t agree on and I’m sure- um
the president doesn’t agree with a lot of his donors ton the fact that
George Bush was a co-conspirator on 9/11 or silly things like that this
is not- this is what we do going into the summer... we focus on
ancillary issues that don’t really matter because we have to draw
headlines when viewership’s down, readership’s down, and newspapers- we
have to bring up these crazy topics instead of focusing on the economy
and focusing on what we’re going to do in this next election.
ROBERTS: But it’s not the media bringing up this..this topic though.
It’s not the media bringing up this topic. It’s Donald Trump. Why are
you blaming the media about this when it’s Donald Trump who throws this
crap out there?
GIDLEY: I’m not blaming- I’m blaming the media for bringing for
uh..for covering what he says about the birther movement. Uh, Mitt
Romney has disavowed it, I’ve disavowed it, Rick Santorum has disavowed
it That stuff is nonsense. Let’s focus on the last four years of this
president, Barack Obama, and what we’re going to do moving forward.
-- Jeffrey Meyer is an MRC intern.
