On Thursday night, MSNBC host Chris Hayes took to bashing Republicans as the main culprits (and not the media) for causing fear in Americans over the current global Ebola outbreak during the first half of his show All In.
Following an interview with Democratic Congresswoman Diane DeGette (Colo.) in which the two stated their oppositions to a ban on travel from West Africa and that DeGette was denied the request to have an Ebola hearing in early September, Hayes turned his attention to alleging Republicans of leading the emergence of “a kind-of Ebola trutherism” while “President Obama continues to resist Republicans’s calls for a travel band.” [MP3 audio here [1]; Video below]
As Hayes elaborated on his statement, he took shots at Republican Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) and, to a lesser extent, Republican Senator Ron Johnson (Wisc.). He read directly from a speech Paul gave [2] to college students in New Hampshire earlier on Thursday in which he referenced the Ebola situation:
This thing is incredibly contagious...People are getting it, full gowned, masked, and must be getting a very tiny inoculum and they’re still getting it. And then you lose more confidence because they’re telling you stuff that may not be exactly valid and they’re downplaying it so much that it doesn’t appear that they’re really being honest about it.
Hayes then remarked that Paul “seems to think the only reason we’re not instituting a travel ban is some kind of misplaced political correctness.” He followed with another quote [2] from Paul’s speech in New Hampshire: “Everyone shouldn’t be out spouting platitudes about hey we don’t want anybody’s feelings to be hurt so we’re going to let everybody continue to travel as if nothing’s going on.”
The liberal MSNBC host then moved to Senator Johnson and said “Paul’s comments were far from the most radical theories circulating about Ebola” in comparison to what Johnson’s response was to a question during a Newsmax TV interview about the possibility of ISIS harnessing a virus such as Ebola and then coming into the U.S.
Responding to that question, Johnson stated that “it's certainly something I’ve been thinking about ever since this Ebola outbreak started” and while most “don’t want to think about” or “talk about,” it remains “a real and present danger.”
Whether you agree or disagree with what Senators Paul and/or Johnson said, referring to them as truthers contributes little to the debate or dissemination of information Americans seek from media outlets each and everyday regarding the Ebola situation.
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on October 16 can be found below.
MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes
October 16, 2014
8:14 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News - Pres. Obama on Ebola: Disease Must Be Stopped in West Africa]
CHRIS HAYES: As President Obama continues to resist Republicans's calls for a travel ban, a kind-of Ebola truther-ism is starting to emerge. Rand Paul, meeting with students in New Hampshire today, told them the government isn’t telling us the truth about Ebola. As MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin reported [2], Paul told his audience, quote, “This thing is incredibly contagious...People are getting it, full gowned, masked, and must be getting a very tiny inoculum and they’re still getting it. And then you lose more confidence because they’re telling you stuff that may not be exactly valid and they’re downplaying it so much that it doesn’t appear that they’re really being honest about it.” Senator Paul seems to think the only reason we're not instituting a travel ban is some kind of misplaced political correctness. Quote, “Everyone shouldn’t be out spouting platitudes about hey we don’t want anybody’s feelings to be hurt so we’re going to let everybody continue to travel as if nothing’s going on.” That's far from the most radical theories circulating about Ebola. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson was asked today if we should be worried about ISIS infecting themselves and traveling to this country in order to use the virus as a biological weapon and this was his response.
REPUBLICAN SENATOR RON JOHNSON (WISC.): Well, it's certainly something I’ve been thinking about ever since this Ebola outbreak started and you really don’t even want to think about it, you don’t even want to talk about it, but we should do everything possible to defend ourselves against that possibility because I think that is a real and present danger.
HAYES: Real and pleasant – present danger.
— Curtis Houck is News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Curtis Houck on Twitter. [3]