Posted on 02/24/2018 3:15:30 AM PST by MarvinStinson
MSNBC host Ali Velshi took grave offense at President Donald Trump taking questions from reporters from the Washington Examiner and One America News Network on Friday.
Velshi considered it vital that Trump face questions about the report that former campaign aide Rick Gates would plead guilty in Robert Muellers investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. The news on Gates broke minutes before Trumps joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and Trump ended up taking questions about Syria and Jared Kushners security clearance.
Velshi expressed outrage that the people who asked those questions were Gabby Morrongiello and Trey Yingst of the Examiner and One American News, respectively.
"In the news conference, typically speaking, if something like this happened and the president had reporters in front of himyou know, he chose two very friendly outlets," Velshi said.
Katy Tur, who was finishing her broadcast and handing off to Velshi, pointed out that Morrongiello and Yingst asked tough questions.
Morrongiello asked, "Your chief of staff, General Kelly, has recommended ending the practice of granting interim security clearances to members of the Trump administration. If that proceeds, would you be willing to grant a waiver to Jared Kushner, one of your senior advisers?"
Yingst addressed Turnbull and Trump, asking, "Australia is known for helping the Syrian people and Syrian refugees. So I ask you today, as the world watches, what steps can Australia take, with the help of the President and the United States, to ensure that civilians are protected in eastern Gouda?"
Velshi told Tur that the questions being "tough" was irrelevant.
"But they were still friendly outlets, the first one of which, OAN, peddles in conspiracy theories," Velshi said, arguing that "something is wrong at the White House" when such outlets have press credentials.
"The president took the easy way out today," Velshi added. "It was cowardly not to take questions from legitimate news sources today. The fact that it was a hard question is secondary to the fact that the president, on a day he had to be held accountable, the very basis of our accountability in society, the president cheated."
Pointing out that Gates was reportedly pleading guilty on charges to defraud the U.S. government, Velshi said it seemed as if the administration was living in an "alternate universe."
Velshi did not provide further definition of what makes an outlet "legitimate," but he has engaged in his own conspiracy theorizing. Just this week, he said on air that he suspects the National Rifle Association of counting him as a member, offering no evidence besides promotional material he received in the mail.
Elsewhere on MSNBC, John Heilemann theorized last month that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) could be a "Russian agent."
Velshi also tweeted his displeasure over Morrongiello and Yingst asking questions.
Ali Velshi
On the day of the 5th guilty plea in the Mueller investigation, Trump takes first question at news conference from pro-Trump One America News, which is known to circulate conspiracy theories.
2:35 PM - Feb 23, 2018
Ali Velshi
Aaaand the Presidents final question...from the conservative Washington Examiner. Wow. Even the most basic elements of accountability are shed by this administration.
2:41 PM - Feb 23, 2018
On April 4, 2013, it was announced that Velshi would be leaving CNN to join Al Jazeera America to host a weekly 30 minute magazine-style prime-time program. He was the first on-air personality to be hired for Al Jazeera America.
Velshi has strongly defended the Muslim community's right to build a mosque and Islamic center (Park51) near Ground Zero in New York City. Velshi has also been critical of Peter King's hearings on Islamic radicalization in the United States as a form of Islamophobia and branding King as "naive"
Velshi was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmy awards in 2015 for his contributions at Al Jazeera. In addition to appearing on The Daily Show, Velshi appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on October 3, 2008, during the global financial crisis, and on The View on February 4, 2009 after the launch of his first book on the crisis. Velshi played himself in the 2010 Oliver Stone film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Velshi is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations,
bmp
Is he talking about MSNBC as a legitimate news source? He ought to do stand up.
President Trump views the MSM the same way we do. Better flush it again.
The president is the source. Should he question himself?
Grave offense? Did he go jump into a fire afterwards?
"President Trump, MSNBC has just called itself a 'legitimate news source', what's your response ?"
That made me laugh.
I’m still laughing as I type this.
Legitimate news organization???? MSNBC??? LOL
This lame excuse for a newscaster, MSNBC's Ali Velshi, is an Ismaili Muslim of Gujarati Indian descent who has strongly defended the Muslim community's right to build a mosque and Islamic center (misnomered Park51) near Ground Zero in New York City.
Velshi makes a public affirmation of his religion and its obsession with "triumphalism"........ vaingloriously marking the spot of its savagery.
Velshi advocates extremist violence in the name of Islam but would devoutly aver this "has nothing to do with the actual religion of Islam.
So why do all these peace-loving Muslims get on heir high horse---acting offended by any intimation of Islam's murderous extremism?
Oh, brother....these people are as transparent as a pane of glass.
This lame excuse for a newscaster, MSNBC's Ali Velshi, is an Ismaili Muslim of Gujarati Indian descent who has strongly defended the Muslim community's right to build a mosque and Islamic center (misnomered Park51) near Ground Zero in New York City.
Velshi makes a public affirmation of his religion and its obsession with "triumphalism"........ vaingloriously marking the spot of its savagery.
Velshi advocates extremist violence in the name of Islam but would devoutly aver this "has nothing to do with the actual religion of Islam.
So why do all these peace-loving Muslims get on heir high horse---acting offended by any intimation of Islam's murderous extremism?
Oh, brother....these people are as transparent as a pane of glass.
Does this POS actually believe anyone gives a rats rear end what he thinks?
But Russian conspiracy theories, spread to manufacture dissent and subvert the federal government's authority and try to overthrow the President, are real news.
The enemedia was quite content to go through 8 years of CLINTON (never mind Obama) without ever seeing them exposed to anything but scripted media appearances. In the 2016 campaign, Hillary’s camp wanted to spend the last several months with media exposure at all - and were never called out on it.
Trump has made the alphabet media obsolete.
legitimate?
Well, legitimate in their own eyes, and those of their paymasters. The shoe is on the other foot, as the leftist media that drove our “cultural revolution” in the 1960s finds itself the object of scorn and skepticism by young people today (on all sides of the spectrum).
“he chose two very friendly outlets,”
So what?
They’re not there to ask questions.
“Legitimate” news sources?????? CNN??? MSNBC???? LMFAO!!!!
But they were still friendly outlets, the first one of which, OAN, peddles in conspiracy theories,...
The president still wont call on msnbc to talk about Russian collusion...
WTF... she is that dumb.
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