The host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” is being savaged by fans of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for criticizing her comparison of U.S. immigration detention centers to Nazi death camps.
But what is worse than their slavish, knee-jerk devotion to the congresswoman, a woman of considerable power and influence, is their willingness to perpetuate obvious falsehoods in her defense. Namely, like Ocasio-Cortez herself, they are repeating the absurd lie that she did not compare U.S. holding facilities to Nazi death camps when she most absolutely did.
NBC News’ Chuck Todd said this week, “If you want to criticize the shameful treatment of people at our southern border, fine. You’ll have plenty of company. But be careful comparing them to Nazi concentration camps because they’re not at all comparable in the slightest.”
He concluded: “I’ve no doubt Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cares deeply about what’s happening at the border. But she just did the people there a tremendous disservice by distracting from their plight. She said she didn’t use those words lightly. Well, neither did I.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison of ICE detentions to concentration camps did border detainees “a tremendous disservice” #MTPDaily
“She said she didn’t use those words lightly,” Chuck Todd said. “Well, neither did I.” pic.twitter.com/5CIOfWn7BQ
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 19, 2019
It was not long before the congresswoman’s acolytes jumped to attention, attacking Todd for being dishonest, uncaring, obtuse, et cetera.
“But they are concentration camps [Todd]. [Ocasio-Cortez] never used a Nazi reference [Todd]. Kids have died in the camps [Todd]. Kids are being traumatized for life in the camps [Todd]. Why are you pandering [Todd]? False equivalencies made Trump possible,” said Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton.
Crooked Media’s Brian Beutler added, “This is such a disgrace. It’s fine if [Todd] didn’t know concentration camps predated the Holocaust and have been used in other atrocities since, but he chose not to look it up, and thus to misinform his viewers, so he could make a #bothsides point and burnish cred with [Ocasio-Cortez] critics.”
“Dear Chuck, you probably don’t know this because I doubt you read any history other than haigiographies [sic] of US Presidents, but concentration camps were invented by the British during the Boer War, and [Ocasio-Cortez’s] use of the term is accurate,” complained Ars Technica’s Jonathan Gitlin .
Lawfare managing editor Quinta Jurecic added, “Todd goes out of his way to distinguish between labor camps and death camps here, but suggests that ‘concentration camps’ were run only by the Nazi regime and thus to invoke the term is to invoke the Nazis. But that’s just not true.”
This is Sean Hannity levels of devotion.
Ocasio-Cortez herself joined the pile-on, claiming disingenuously on social media, “Well, [Chuck Todd] – the fact that you slipped in ‘Nazi’ when I never said that is pretty unfortunate.”
Well, @chucktodd – the fact that you slipped in “Nazi” when I never said that is pretty unfortunate.
Almost as unfortunate as the fact that you spent this whole time w/o discussing DHS freezers, “dog pounds,” missing children, & human rights abuses that uphold use of this term. https://t.co/1eNuW1ZR0f
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 19, 2019
This is gaslighting at its finest. Ocasio-Cortez most absolutely meant to compare U.S. immigration detention facilities to Nazi death camps. She and her supporters are lying when they claim otherwise.
During the live Instagram broadcast wherein she used the term “concentration camp” to refer to U.S. border holding facilities, she specifically invoked the Holocaust when she mentioned the phrase “Never again.”
“I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity that ‘Never Again’ means something,” the congresswoman said. “The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it.”
To claim that she did not mean to refer to Nazi concentration camps is a lie. She is lying. Her fanboys are lying. Chuck Todd is right. His criticism was correct. Anyone who claims he put words in her mouth is either lying or an idiot. Possibly both.
