The hosts of Hardball and All In with Chris Matthews and Chris Hayes passed up an opportunity to offer their viewers a more accurate answer to statements made by their guest concerning health care Tuesday night.
Both host in talking about the Supreme Courts up coming decision on the ACA had guest who said the republicans had 5 years to come up with their own health care plan and had failed to do so. The fact of the matter is the republicans also had 8 years under republicn President George W. Bush to come up with a health care plan and failed.
Health care did not become a problem on Obama's watch. It has been a problem for over two decades. That is how long government, business and the people have been dealing with the high cost of health care and the uninsured. Matthews and Hayes should have brought that up so their viewers could have a better understanding just how republicans have failed to act on the issue.
Hayes on his show reported how Rumsfeld was walking back a statement he made only the day before concerning Iraq. The news media failed to challenge many statements by Rumsfeld during the runup to war and even during the war and its aftermath. What MSNBC should have shown long ago is an interview of Rumsfeld on Meet the Press during the run up to war in Iraq. The interview was conducted by Tim Russert, Meet the Press moderator at the time.
Rumsfeld told Russert, "We know where Saddam has hidden his WMD, they are hidden in and around Tikrit." That was Saddam's home town. But Saddam got rid of his WMD in 1991 according to the U.S. inspection team that searched Iraq. That was 12 years before the invasion. So American intelligence could not have offered Rumsfeld any proof that Saddam had WMD hidden since they did not exist at any time during the Bush 43 administration. What is so important about that Meet the Press interview is that it showed how far the Bush administration was willing to go in lying to the public. It also explains why Bush never showed the American people photographic evidence of Iraq's WMD.
Unlike President Kennedy who during the Cuban missile crisis showed America and the world photographic evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. The news media was never curious why Bush did not produce evidence of Iraq's WMD. President Bush committed an impeachable act in his handling of the Iraq war and the news media caved in. It was a different story when they were right there with the republicans when they impeached President Clinton over an affair.
Since MSNBC is part of the NBC family they can easily check out the Rumsfeld interview on Meet the Press and rerun it.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
