NBC's Matt Lauer, on Wednesday's Today show, invited on
conservative columnist and author Michelle Malkin to discuss several
topics ranging from Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest to Malkin's critique
of Michelle Obama, but when the subject of only one Republican voting
for Sonia Sotomayor in the Senate Judiciary committee came up, Lauer
wondered if that would hurt the GOP with Hispanics as he queried:
"After the, the last election it was said that the Republicans need to
broaden the tent, they need to reach out to minorities. Reach out to
Hispanics. Is that, are those six 'no' votes gonna hurt Republicans
down the road?"
Lauer also expressed incredulity that Malkin dared to "take on," the First Lady as seen in the following exchange:
MATT LAUER: Let me ask you about your book. In it - I mean clearly we know by the co-, we know by the title where it goes - you take on Michelle Obama-
MICHELLE MALKIN: I certainly do.
LAUER: -in this book. You call her the "First Crony."
MALKIN: Yes I do.
LAUER: Why?
MALKIN: Because she was steeped in the politics of the Daley machine. Her father was a patronage appointee of Daley. She's beholden to the type of hardball politics that Barack Obama says he is against. Her entire professional career was based on nepotism. And now she has brought almost every-
LAUER: Her entire? Wait, wait, wait, wait-
MALKIN: Absolutely.
LAUER: But that's, but that's a very broad comment. Her entire professional career-
MALKIN: Read, read chapter two. That's right.
LAUER: -was based on nepotism?
MALKIN: Read chapter two and you will find that despite her Princeton thesis, where she whined and moaned about the old boy network and how she couldn't get ahead because of her skin color, in fact, is a farce because it wasn't one of those old white boys who put her in that position, in the first place. And now this team of Chicago cronies, Susan Sher, Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and a lot of these bundlers that Obama had condemned are now installed in both the West Wing and the East Wing. They're ruining our economy and I think it, I think that the book shatters the entire era of hope and change. Now he helped kill it in a six month period.
The following is the full interview as it was aired on the July 29, Today show:
MATT LAUER: Alright Ron, thanks very much. Ron Allen in Cambridge for us this morning. Michelle Malkin is a conservative columnist, blogger and author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies. Michelle, good morning.
MICHELLE MALKIN: Good morning, Matt.
LAUER: What, what's the book about? No, I'm kidding.
MALKIN: I think you can't judge a book by it's cover, Matt.
LAUER: I'm kidding. On that particular case, I'll get to that in a second. But President Obama says the Gates situation is a "teaching moment." What has he learned, do you think, from the situation, the way he's handled it?
MALKIN: Well I think he is a racial opportunist and I think that he has learned that he shouldn't shoot his mouth off when he explicitly admits that he didn't know what happened.
LAUER: A racial opportunist?
MALKIN: Yes.
LAUER: He hasn't gotten to where he is today by being a racial opportunist, has he?
MALKIN: I think that he took that moment, used a health care conference that was a debacle, basically and took this story, which is really just a local parochial law enforcement story, to try and ensure some sort moment of his racial authenticity. And it backfired because he was wrong and he should have admitted it. And I think for a president that has offered up hope and change and a new politics is just another example. I wouldn't say that there is another example of corruption, but I think it is, I think it, it, it plays into this idea that a man who has hyped himself as something different and something new is nothing but that.
LAUER: You, you, you conclude all of that based on one mistake he made, in terms of a comment he made?
MALKIN: One mistake? Oh!
LAUER: I'm talking this comment. This particular comment-
MALKIN: It, it, no-
LAUER: -sets that entire scenario up for you?
MALKIN: No, I, I think it's clear that, that was a calculated move. Everything that this president does is Kabuki theater. Every townhall-
LAUER: You think this was a planned question?
MALKIN: Absolutely do.
LAUER: And, and the way he handled it and the fallout from it, was something he was looking for?
MALKIN: I think, I think that he overestimated the power of his authenticity in America. And it's just another example of a botched failure and that's what I filled Culture of Corruption with.
LAUER: Sonia Sotomayor was cleared this week by the Senate Judiciary committee-
MALKIN: Yes.
LAUER: It was pretty much a party line vote, 13 to 6. Lindsey Graham was the only Republican voting in her favor.
MALKIN: Yes no surprises, fait accompli.
LAUER: After the, the last election it was said that the Republicans need to broaden the tent, they need to reach out to minorities. Reach out to Hispanics. Is that, are those six 'no' votes gonna hurt Republicans down the road?
MALKIN: No, because they were six principled votes against racial preferences and the idea that somehow identity politics has a place on the court of law.
LAUER: Why do you think Lindsey Graham voted in favor?
MALKIN: I think Lindsey Graham has a history of pandering to this idea that somehow the, the party should broaden itself for the sake of pandering to diversity.
LAUER: Let me ask you about your book. In it - I mean clearly we know by the co-, we know by the title where it goes - you take on Michelle Obama-
MALKIN: I certainly do.
LAUER: -in this book. You call her the "First Crony."
MALKIN: Yes I do.
LAUER: Why?
MALKIN: Because she was steeped in the politics of the Daley machine. Her father was a patronage appointee of Daley. She's beholden to the type of hardball politics that Barack Obama says he is against. Her entire professional career was based on nepotism. And now she has brought almost every-
LAUER: Her entire? Wait, wait, wait, wait-
MALKIN: Absolutely.
LAUER: But that's, but that's a very broad comment. Her entire professional career-
MALKIN: Read, read chapter two. That's right.
LAUER: -was based on nepotism?
MALKIN: Read chapter two and you will find that despite her Princeton thesis, where she whined and moaned about the old boy network and how she couldn't get ahead because of her skin color, in fact, is a farce because it wasn't one of those old white boys who put her in that position, in the first place. And now this team of Chicago cronies, Susan Sher, Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and a lot of these bundlers that Obama had condemned are now installed in both the West Wing and the East Wing. They're ruining our economy and I think it, I think that the book shatters the entire era of hope and change. Now he helped kill it in a six month period.
LAUER: Gotta go, real quickly.
MALKIN: But we've documented it very clearly. Every inch of this administration is rife with corruption and cronyism and it's about time they look in the mirror and admit it.
LAUER: A lot of comments there. This is Today on NBC. We'll be back.
-Geoffrey Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research Center.