Democratic communications strategist Jake Maccoby kicked off an explosive segment on “Outnumbered” Friday when he argued that the violent tones dominating recent political discourse were not one-sided. “This is not one party or another,” he claimed.
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Maccoby, a former speechwriter for both Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, began by claiming that Republican outrage at the current tone was hypocritical at best.
“Boy, that is something my community would call chutzpah,” he said. “For Chuck Grassley to stand up and say ‘We are shocked, shocked that there is gambling going on here’ … the Republican Party, we were just talking about, held up in a judgeship — a Supreme Court judgeship — for a year. Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas held up a nomination for President Obama for — he literally died.”
“Outnumbered” host Melissa Francis argued that Merrick Garland didn’t face quite the same response. “What happened with Merrick Garland was completely political. All this is political. The tone that’s going on right now, frankly, what feels like being on the verge of violence. What’s been done to this man and his family, God forbid these things aren’t true. You know, it really has — you have to admit, it has reached a new level.”
Cohost Lisa Kennedy gave examples of Republicans who been attacked violently — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others — and reminded Maccoby that ranking Democrats like California Rep. Maxine Waters and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker had all but called for violence.
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“We are not talking about violent words or violent threats,” she said. “We are talking about action. Then you have people like Cory Booker and Maxine Waters, and their call to action of getting up in people’s faces and gathering a crowd and shouting people down. Those aren’t theoretical. Those are actual things that lead to violence in society, and that is not okay.”
Maccoby responded by trying to bring President Donald Trump into the mix. “You have the President of the United States telling people to rough up protesters in the audience. This is not one party or another. This is a really serious issue … The idea — the idea that there is some kind of Democratic violent plot against Republicans is not only wrong; it is really shameful.”
That was when cohost Lisa Boothe jumped in, saying, “You have had Senators on Capitol Hill that have had police escorts this week because the level of death threats and violence against them — people who do not support judge Kavanaugh — you’ve had the Democrat party … How disgraceful, that somehow this is vengeance, to try and ruin a man’s life based off of nothing.”
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