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MSNBC Host: ‘There Isn’t a Strain of Racism on the Left’

Nicolle Wallace's comment comes the day the DNC cut ties with the Women's March over anti-Semitism

January 15, 2019

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said there is no strain of racism on the left the same day the Democratic National Committee had to pull out of the Women’s March because of an anti-Semitism scandal.

Wallace’s program "Deadline: White House" devoted a segment to Rep. Steve King’s remark about wishing "white supremacy" was not considered offensive. Republicans voted unanimously to condemn white supremacy today, but Wallace was laser-focused on trashing every member of her former party for the comment.

"This does not have a parallel on the left. There just—it doesn't. There isn't. There isn't a strain of racism on the left. I don't—so I think that this gets brushed under the rug. People sort of tolerate—it's been normalized," Wallace said. "How do Republicans sort of get back to doing something decent?"

Matthew Miller, a former Obama official, answered that Republicans "would have to completely reinvent the party" in order to not be racist. "The problem they have is, this is not the message of the party," he argued, pointing to Republicans wanting to stop the migrant caravan as evidence.

This exchange completely ignored the anti-Semitism scandal that has roiled the left ever since reports came out about Women’s March co-founders spreading conspiracy theories about Jewish people. Tamika Mallory and Bob Bland, two of the march’s leaders, appeared on ABC’s "The View" Monday morning to defend the organization, but they did not denounce the man at the center of the controversy: Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan.

Mallory and fellow leader Linda Sarsour have long-established ties to Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. A report in Tablet magazine last month showed they were spreading some of his ideas behind the scenes, although they have denied it. Farrakhan wrote a book blaming Jews for slavery in America, and Mallory and co-founder Carmer Perez expected Jewish women in their coalition to atone for these Jewish "sins," according to Tablet’s story. This coincided with the organization’s notable lack of Jewish representation and vehement opposition to the state of Israel.

Former Obama official Rick Stengel said the matter with King is a "window into the party" and argued many voters think this way, but MSNBC analyst Elise Jordan put the blame squarely on President Donald Trump.