The crew for MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" wanted to report on an effort to bar Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina) from running in 2022, and a senior producer proposed asking the young lawmaker on the show. The internal conversation that went public expressed some concern that however unlikely it was, the first-term House member might accept the offer and explain himself. (Related story)
To quote the January 10 email:
"We don't have a relationship with his [Cawthorn's] office and between you and me are a little worried that if we did inquire he might ask to come on and explain. I know that is HIGHLY doubtful, but don't want to take that risk."
Curtis Houck of Media Research Center says there was a day when MSNBC would have taken the chance.
"CNN and MSNBC have fewer and fewer people [on a program] who go against the grain," he tells AFN, "and if they do have people on, MSNBC will have Michael Steele or CNN would have Liz Cheney – so-called Republicans who vote Democrat."
The liberal Left is trying to disqualify from running for office anyone who has any hint of a connection to the January 6 Capitol riot – hoping to get rid of all the Trump supporters in one fell-swoop. Reportedly they want to apply a Civil War-era amendment to the Constitution (i.e., the 14th Amendment) that says anyone involved in an "insurrection" is barred from seeking office.
Cawthorn once questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election – and evidently that's enough to put a target on his back.
Houck says lining up behind the effort to disqualify Cawthorn and other conservatives might be too hard for the mainstream media to pass up. "I think the media would absolutely go along with it and help lobby it as well," he suggests, "which again would further our political divide by continuing to dehumanize people who think differently than they do."
But Houck points out that it's not just Republicans who in the past have questioned election results. "Anyone who's about age 30 or younger has not been (a) alive and or (b) cogent to recall a time in which Democrats accepted the results of any presidential election they lost," he states.
According to Fox News, Cawthorn's office has stated he would consider going on Maddow's show – if he was ever invited.
