The Republican National Committee fired back against MSNBC in response to a controversial tweet it sent Wednesday, as RNC Chair Reince Priebus banned all staff from appearing on the network and called on Republican pundits to follow suit.
Priebus sent a letter to MSNBC President Phil Griffin addressing a tweet the network posted about a new Cheerios commercial, which insinuated that Republicans dislike interracial families. Though the network apologized via its official Twitter account and deleted the offending tweet, Priebus told Griffin he has prohibited all RNC staff from “appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC” until the network’s president apologizes and “takes internal corrective action.”
“Sadly, such petty and demeaning attacks have become a pattern at your network,” Priebus wrote to Griffin. “With increasing frequency many of your hosts have personally denigrated and demeaned Americans — especially conservative and Republican Americans — without even attempting to further meaningful political dialogue.”
The chair then sent a memorandum to all Republican elected officials, strategists, surrogates and pundits, calling on them to join in the RNC’s boycott of the network. Priebus himself was on MSNBC as recent as Wednesday and said he enjoyed appearing on several of their programs, but told Griffin the network as a whole is “poisoned” because of its propensity to make offensive comments.
“We can have our political disagreements with MSNBC, but using biracial families to launch petty and ridiculous political attacks is low, even by MSNBC’s standards,” Priebus wrote to his fellow Republicans. “It only coarsens our political discourse.”
Attacks from MSNBC and its hosts are not limited to its offensive tweet, though. The RNC chair noted a bevy of hosts, including Alec Baldwin, Martin Bashir and Melissa Harris-Perry, who have lodged controversial attacks against the Right. He encouraged the network’s executives to “consider whether their network is upholding a meaningful journalistic mission.”
The tweet from MSNBC stated, “maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad/biracial family.” In addition to the network apologizing, MSNBC executive editor Richard Wolffe took to his Twitter account to address the note, calling it “dumb” and “offensive.”
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Update (4:27 p.m.): CNN’s Brian Stelter reports that Griffin released a statement apologizing to Priebus personally and defending his network’s approach to “passionate, strong debate.”
“The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet,” the statement reads. “I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At MSNBC we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.”
