MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell launched into a lengthy tirade Monday evening exploring former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s remarks questioning President Obama’s love of the United States, the now six-day-old controversy apparently very much alive at the struggling cable news network.
“[W]hen a politician talks about loving America, you should always ask him or her what he or she actually means. What does it mean to love America? What does it mean to love a country?” O’Donnell began.
At a gathering of donors in New York City last Wednesday, while answering a question about what he looks for in potential presidential candidates, Giuliani remarked that he does not think that the president loves the United States the way President Ronald Reagan loved the country. Reporters and pundits alike immediately condemned the former mayor’s remarks.
“When a Republican politician says he loves America, does it mean he loves the American people, all of them, including the ones who don’t vote for him, or the ones who don’t vote at all? Does it mean he loves the people who hate him? Because every American politician is hated by someone,” O’Donnell said.
“And many of them are hated by millions of people. Unlike politicians, the American people understand that love is complicated. And that love of country isn’t easily defined and might not even be necessary,’” he added, citing a recent Pew poll that only 28 percent of survey respondents believe that the U.S. “stands above all other countries.”
O’Donnell continued: “When Rudy Giuliani says he loves America, does that mean he loves all Americans, including the people who think that America is just one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others? Or does Rudy Giuliani think those people are crazy and unlovable and a disgrace to their citizenship? A country is a patch of dirt, a bunch of people, and a government. I don’t think Rudy Giuliani is talking about the land mass of the United States when he says, ‘I love America.’”
The MSNBC host then suggested Giuliani can’t possibly love those who are in government, especially those who tax him.
Giuliani “questioned the contents of the president’s heart, questioned what the president loves. Right after Rudy Giuliani said he does not believe that the president loves America, he actually said, and I’m going to quote here. He said, ‘And he doesn’t love me,’” O’Donnell said.
“What could that possibly mean? It could mean something romantic but I don’t think it does. But I think it does prove something. I think it proves that when Rudy Giuliani talks about love, he has, and we have, no idea what he’s talking about,” he said.
