Ed Schultz advises Obama: ‘The best negotiation is telling Boehner what to do’

By Arturo Garcia/Raw Story

MSNBC host Ed Schultz argued on Monday that President Barack Obama should take full advantage of Republicans’ horrible polling numbers during his next set of negotiations with GOP and Democratic lawmakers regarding both the government shutdown and the federal debt limit.

“Mister President, when you meet with the ‘Big Four’ later today — the leaders from the House and the Senate — understand, sir, respectfully, that the people are on your side. The best negotiation is telling [House Speaker John] Boehner (R-OH) what to do. We’ll deal with the numbers later on. The public is with the president and the Democrats.”

Schultz cited a NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey showing the GOP being blamed at a higher rate for the current impasse than Democrats, as well as historically low approval ratings for both Republicans and their Tea Party allies.

Tea Partiers like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Schultz pointed out, were also criticized by organizers of the “Million Vet March” for co-opting their demonstrationalongside former Gov. Sarah Palin (R), who Schultz called,”the quitter of Alaska.”

Schultz also noted that neither Boehner nor Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have condemned the Islamophobic remarks made at the rally by conservative activist Larry Klayman, who told the crowd that Obama“bows down to Allah” and called upon demonstrators to use civil disobedience to force Obama to “get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come up with his hands out.”

“When you put your name, your reputation, on that stage, birds of a feather flock together,” Schultz said. “You are endorsing everything that is said on that stage, and you can’t piecemeal it.”

Watch Schultz exhort Obama to get tough on Republicans, as aired on MSNBC on Monday, below.

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Schultz and Maddow pound Scott Walker on Paul Ryan’s auto-plant lie

By David Ferguson/Raw Story

In this slow-burner of a clip from Wednesday night’s MSNBC coverage of the Republican National Convention, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker (R) found himself caught in the crossfire between two of the sharpest political commentators on television, “Ed Show” host Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show.” The interview begins cordially enough, but things start to get heated at about the 3-minute mark, when Maddow and Schultz pin Walker down on the question of something vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said in his speech about President Barack Obama’s alleged failure to save a Wisconsin auto plant.

Perhaps hoping that he would get to talk to Joe Scarborough or former network stalwart Pat Buchanan, Walker had wandered up to the MSNBC cameras and reporter Ron Mott to discuss the emotional impact Paul Ryan’s speech had on him.

“A lot of folks in my small town of Sullivan went to work in that plant in Janesville and talked about that promise that President Obama made years ago, about that plant not closing down,” he said. “That’s the real deal. That showed that this isn’t some disconnected concept. This is the real deal in places like Janesville.”

A moment later, Maddow chimed in. “Gov. Walker, it’s Rachel Maddow in New York,” she said, “I appreciate the chance to talk to you about this. I don’t mean to be a fact checker, but on that Janesville GM plant, isn’t it true that that GM plant closed during the Bush administration? Your criticism that the auto bailout wasn’t big enough to come back and reopen it? That was not Barack Obama shutting down that plant.”

“No, actually,” the governor replied, “it had two rounds of layoffs and ultimately closed down just a few years ago.” He went on to allege that if the companies had engaged in “managed bankruptcies” early on, then some hardships may have been avoided.

It wasn’t long before Schultz joined the fray.

Cutting through Walker’s cloud of mealy-mouthed equivocations, he said, “It was not Barack Obama’s economic policies that shut down that GM plant. That plant was closed in December of 2008. It’s in the Washington Post right now, Gov. Walker. It had nothing to do with Barack Obama’s economic policies whatsoever, you can’t get away from that fact.”

Walker suddenly looked as if he wished to be anywhere but in front of that camera. He tried to assert that if people at the plant had taken Mitt Romney’s advice and pursued a “managed bankruptcy” sooner, the plant might or might now still be open, but that taxpayers would have been saved millions of dollars.

“So are you making the case that that plant in Janesville would have better employment today if they had followed Mitt Romney’s theory of a ‘managed bankruptcy?’” asked Schultz, “That you could guarantee in your economic model that that plant would still be employing and making things today?”

At that point, MSNBC host Al Sharpton erupted and the crosstalk became unintelligible with Walker insisting over and over that Barack Obama promised to keep that plant open, a promise that the president never made.

Watch the video, embedded via MSNBC, below:

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NAACP official: Romney ‘rigged crowd’ by having blacks ‘flown in’

By David Edwards/Raw Story

The director to the NAACP’s Washington Bureau revealed on Thursday that GOP hopeful Mitt Romney had conservative African Americans “flown in” to the 103rd convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to make it appear that he had more support than he really did.

During an interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto, Romney said that he had met with a “number of African American leaders” after his NAACP speech and they told him “a lot of folks” were disappointed in President Barack Obama.

On Wednesday night, MSNBC host Ed Schultz asked NAACP Washington Bureau Director Hilary Shelton which “African American leaders” Romney was referring to.

“The campaign actually gave me a list of African American VIPs that they brought in to the NAACP meeting,” Shelton explained. “So, I’m sure those are the one they set down with because, quite frankly, none of the rank-and-file NAACPers met with him.”

“He’s talking about African American Republican politicians that were actually brought in — flown in — to the NAACP convention in Houston, Texas to be there for the [candidate] alone,” he added.

“That means that Mitt Romney rigged the crowd to support him there so he could go on TV and say, ‘You know, actually I got a lot of support among African American leaders,’” Schultz noted.

“Apparently, that’s what the case is,” Shelton agreed. “They are bringing people in that they know will support his agenda from other places that aren’t active with the NAACP. These are people that were actually brought in to provide the cheering for him so there will be some support for him along those lines.”

While Romney did receive some sparse cheers and applause during the speech, the loudest reaction came when the crowd booed him for vowing to repeal “Obamacare.”

Watch this video from MSNBC’s The Ed Show, broadcast July 11, 2012

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Ed Schultz: Hannity Is "The Most Out Of Touch Man In America" For Denying That Americans Are Going To Bed Hungry

Ed Schultz denies comparison with Rush Limbaugh over ‘slut’ remark

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

On his show Monday night, MSNBC host Ed Schultz said that his own sexist remarks were not equal to those of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

“When I made an inappropriate comment last year on my radio show, I took it to a much higher platform,” he said. “I went to management here at MSNBC and said I’ve made a mistake, I need to take myself off the air without pay. And while Limbaugh apologized on a website, I apologized on MSNBC, a much bigger platform.”

“President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Missouri on Sunday but you know what they’re talking about, like this right-wing slut, what’s her name?” Schultz asked on his radio program last year. “Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she’s a talk slut.”

During his apology on MSNBC, Schultz said he was “deeply sorry” for his terribly vile comment and asked Ingraham for her forgiveness.

“Once again the right wing is making a false comparison between myself and Rush Limbaugh,” Schultz said. “Rush’s statement said he sincerely apologized to Sandra Fluke. A sincere apology is unequivocal and accepts complete responsibly for the offense.”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

MSNBC's Ed Schultz Debunks Hannity's Claim That Obama Didn't Want Bin Laden Strike

Schultz mocks Beck’s ‘ugly divorce’ with Fox News

By David Edwards

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz responded Thursday after Fox News’ Glenn Beck called him a “piece of trash” on his radio show.

Beck had been upset with Schultz for reporting that the conservative host had appeared to point to a photo of President Barack Obama while telling his viewers to buy guns.

“This guy is such a piece of trash,” Beck said on his Thursday radio show. “Do you not know how camera angles work, Ed?”

“That is why I’m leaving television. There’s no honor in it. No one is honorable.”

“Glenn beck giving a lecture on honor is ridiculous,” Schultz said Thursday. “But if I had any part in getting Beck to leave television, I will wear it as a badge of honor.”

“He says there in that radio ad-lib that people have asked him why he’s leaving television. He uses me as the crutch, saying that there’s no honorable people in tv. I’ve never worked a day in my life with the guy. I’ve never had any association with him. What is he really saying about Fox?” the MSNBC host asked Media Matters Eric Boehlert.

“They are clearly — frayed that relationship,” Boehlert explained. “He is clearly out the door. They are subbing for him every chance they get. This is not a very friendly divorce that they’re having. But yeah, I think he’s talking about honor. You can read into that, he’s talking about some folks at Fox News.”

Watch this video from MSNBC’s The Ed Schultz Show, broadcast June 16, 2011.

Boehlert On Ed Show: If Ailes Is "Ordering Them To Tone It Down, Is That An Admission That He Knew The Rhetoric Was Out Of Control?"

Burns: "Conservatives have nothing" and "[t]hey're throwing everything at the wall" to attack Kagan

Media Matters' Eric Burns on MSNBC: "Glenn Beck is the single most dangerous person in this country"

Dem lawmaker smacks Cheney: ‘Political diarrhea of the mouth’

By David Edwards and Sahil Kapur WASHINGTON -- Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) on Wednesday delivered a fervent and stinging rebuke to former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent attack on President Obama after the failed Christmas bombing.

"I am sick and tired of the former vice president of the United States taking shots not only at this administration, for problems he was largely and personally responsible for, but by an extension at those of us who served in the military and bring that experience," Massa said on MSNBC's The Ed Show.

"This man suffers from a horrible case of political Tourette's [syndrome], and it's about time that we stand up and kick right back because I'm sick and tired of him kicking us in our shins," Massa said.

Cheney's forceful critique of Obama quickly garnered significant media attention, and several journalists accused the story's author Mike Allen of failing to fact-check Cheney's seemingly curious claims.

"We need to grow a spine and stand up and show America exactly who did what," Massa said, pointing to Cheney's role in the events leading to the Christmas day attempt and the fact that the Bush administration took several days longer than Obama to address the 2001 shoe-bomber incident.

"It was Dick Cheney personally responsible for the release of the masterminds of the Christmas airline terror plot," he said, accusing the former vice president of shifting his culpability to Democrats.

"It makes no difference what we do, this man suffers from political diarrhea of the mouth, and unless we stand up and call it as it is he's going to keep on getting away with it," Massa said.

Host Ed Schultz called Cheney a "coward" and heatedly rebuffed the GOP meme that their party is more effective on national security, and said the Democratic Party cedes ground by failing to counter these claims.

"What do we have to do to get the Democrats to be aggressive on security?" Schultz said. "We got hit on [the GOP's] watch. They were told that bin Laden was going to do this and they sat on their fat ass on vacation and did nothing about it."

Massa agreed, saying that "this is not a political problem, it's a national security issue -- and for the Republicans to come out swinging and make this a political issue is the height of absolute arrogance and the depth of incompetence."

In a direct challenge to Cheney, Massa added: "I want Dick Cheney to come debate me, anywhere, anytime, anyhow -- and let's see how he stands up to the truth."

The New York Democrat also lashed out at Sen. Jim DeMint as "personally responsible for placing you, the traveling American public at risk" by "placing a hold on the nominee of the director of the Transportation Security Agency."

"People like Jim DeMint and people like Dick Cheney need to go away so we can solve the problems they've created," Massa said.

This video is from MSNBC's The Ed Show, broadcast Dec. 30, 2009.

After being chastized by Cantor’s ‘PR flack,’ Ed Schultz challenges the congressman to a one-hour debate.

By Zaid Jilani

At a forum this past Monday, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) fielded questions from his constituents about health care reform. As ThinkProgress first reported, Cantor told a woman whose relative was diagnosed with cancer and could not get care to get “an existing government program” or turn to charity. Today, radio and television host Ed Schultz told listeners that after featuring video of the incident on his show, he received an e-mail from a “PR flack” in Cantor’s office chiding him for going after the congressman. In response, Schultz asked his listeners today to e-mail Cantor’s office and ask him to come on his show, offering him the whole hour to debate him on health care:

SCHULTZ: Call Cantor’s office or e-mail him and ask him if he’ll go head-to-head with me for a full hour on the Ed show. A full hour. I’ll give him a full hour! To explain what the Republican plan is or is she just left to die? [...]

Come on, Cantor. Don’t hide behind your press secretary. Let’s get it on.

Listen here: