Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Friday's Fox & Friends First, contributor Joe Concha called out Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for continuing to claim that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza even after both the Israeli military and President Joe Biden concluded that Palestinian terrorists damaged the hospital with a misfired missile.
As Congresswoman Tlaib not only repeated the claim at a rally and refused to correct or delete her tweet blaming Israel, CNN and MSNBC have ignored the Michigan Democrat continuing the lie about the issue. This comes after MSNBC host Chris Hayes a week earlier gave an out of context commentary defending her from being confronted by Fox News.
Setting up the segment, co-host Todd Piro recalled:
Squad Democrat Rashida Tlaib dodging questions about a post blaming Israel for the hospital blast in Gaza. Remember this post where she unequivocally said this was all Israel's fault despite the fact that, you know, it wasn't Israel's fault, and all the intelligence proved that. One reporter writing on social media, quote: "Tlaib would not respond just now when I asked if she had considered taking this post down after Biden said he believes Israel didn't bomb this hospital." Another reporter saying, quote, "Tlaib refused to say anything as she rushed from the House floor to a car waiting to pick her up outside the Capitol building."
Going to Concha, Piro added: "Your reaction, Joe, to this refusal to take responsibility for her inflammatory words which are on the screen right now where not only does she accuse Israel of bombing this hospital, but she accused the President of the United States in her party 'to refuse to facilitate a ceasefire and help de-escalate.'"
The right-leaning media critic accused Congresswoman Tlaib of endangering American citizens as he responded:
Todd, Carley, it's amazing. This tweet has been viewed millions upon millions of times, and she still refuses to take it down, delete the tweet because obviously the information is completely false. And if this were a tweet by somebody from Hamas or somebody sympathetic from Al Jazeera in the Middle East, that's one thing. This is a sitting U.S. Congresswoman that is purposely throwing out misinformation -- lies -- let's call it what it is -- and it could get people killed. There are still American hostages being held. She just doesn't seem to care.
Concha further recalled that the blast did not do nearly as much damage or cause the number of deaths initially claimed, noting that it was actually caused by Palestinian terrorists attempting to launch a missile and then blaming Israel for the explosion.
The previous week, MSNBC's Hayes used his All In show to condemn Fox News for hounding Congresswoman Tlaib in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. On his October 11 show, he lamented: "It took very little time for the Fox News Channel to identify its domestic enemies and scapegoats after the mass slaughter in southern Israel. Yesterday a Fox reporter relentlessly pursued Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib -- the lone Palestinian woman in Congress -- through the halls of the Capitol."
He then showed a clip of Fox reporter Lindsey Vaughn following the Michigan Democrat in a hallway and trying to get her to condemn the murder of babies by Hamas. Hayes came to her defense:
Of course they featured it all over the network -- a reporter berating a sitting member of Congress demanding that the only Palestinian American in the House answer for the barbaric actions of Hamas. It should go without saying that Rashida Tlaib is not responsible for the actions of Hamas. But it didn't end there. The Republican party then decided to attack Tlaib for displaying the Palestinian flag outside her congressional office. To his credit, former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, defended Tlaib.
Hayes did not mention that the attention on the Michigan Democrat came after she released a statement the day after the October 7 terrorist attack in which she blamed U.S. support for Israeli "apartheid" for causing such "resistance" to happen, leading to criticisms from pro-Israel Democrats like Congressmen Ritchie Torres and Josh Gottheimer.
Fox's commentary by Concha was sponsored in part by Google and Liberty Mutual. Their contact information is linked. Let them know you appreciate them informing their viewers about far left extremism in Congress.
Transcripts follow:
Fox & Friends First
October 20, 2023
5:47 a.m. Eastern
TODD PIRO: Squad Democrat Rashida Tlaib dodging questions about a post blaming Israel for the hospital blast in Gaza. Remember this post where she unequivocally said this was all Israel's fault despite the fact that, you know, it wasn't Israel's fault, and all the intelligence proved that. One reporter writing on social media, quote: "Tlaib would not respond just now when I asked if she had considered taking this post down after Biden said he believes Israel didn't bomb this hospital." Another reporter saying, quote, "Tlaib refused to say anything as she rushed from the House floor to a car waiting to pick her up outside the Capitol building."
Your reaction, Joe, to this refusal to take responsibility for her inflammatory words which are on the screen right now where not only does she accuse Israel of bombing this hospital, but she accused the President of the United States in her party "to refuse to facilitate a ceasefire and help de-escalate."
JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Todd, Carley, it's amazing. This tweet has been viewed millions upon millions of times, and she still refuses to take it down, delete the tweet because obviously the information is completely false. And if this were a tweet by somebody from Hamas or somebody sympathetic from Al Jazeera in the Middle East, that's one thing. This is a sitting U.S. Congresswoman that is purposely throwing out misinformation -- lies -- let's call it what it is -- and it could get people killed. There are still American hostages being held. She just doesn't seem to care.
And when she pushes this lie that Israel launched a strike on that hospital in Gaza and that hundreds were killed when we're seeing evidence that, A, the hospital is still standing, B, that missile did not come from Israel. It came from inside Gaza. Islamic Jihad misfired and hit a parking lot next to it. And the fact that we still see media outlets reporting that hundreds were killed when clearly hundreds were not killed, and the fact that it's still called an attack when it's not an attack when it comes from inside Gaza. It was a misfire. Between Rashida Tlaib and some media outlets, this is the type of stuff that is life and death stuff, and she should take this tweet down.
(...)
MSNBC All In
October 11, 2023
8:21 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS HAYES: It took very little time for the Fox News Channel to identify its domestic enemies and scapegoats after the mass slaughter in southern Israel. Yesterday a Fox reporter relentlessly pursued Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib -- the lone Palestinian woman in Congress -- through the halls of the Capitol.
LINDSEY VAUGHN, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Congresswoman, Hamas terrorists have cut off babies' heads and burned children alive. Do you support Israel's right to defend themselves against this brutality? You can't comment about Hamas terrorists chopping off babies' heads?
HAYES: It went on like that for a minute. Of course they featured it all over the network -- a reporter berating a sitting member of Congress demanding that the only Palestinian American in the House answer for the barbaric actions of Hamas. It should go without saying that Rashida Tlaib is not responsible for the actions of Hamas. But it didn't end there. The Republican party then decided to attack Tlaib for displaying the Palestinian flag outside her congressional office. To his credit, former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, defended Tlaib.
LAWRENCE JONES, FOX NEWS REPORTER : Should your colleague, Rashida Tlaib, still have the Palestinian flag outside of her office?
CONGRESSMAN STENY HOYER, FORMER MAJORITY LEADER: I don't know what -- she's Palestinian. You know, that doesn't mean she's a terrorist. It doesn't mean that she condones this.
HAYES: Should she have the Palestinian flag? Then, the Republican National Committee went after Hoyer, criticizing him for defending Tlaib's right to acknowledge and celebrate her heritage, and obviously Fox got its attacks in as well.
VAUGHN: Congresswoman, why do you have a Palestinian flag outside your office if you do not condone what Hamas terrorists have done to Israel? Do Israeli lives not matter to you?
HAYES: The entire moral abomination that we witnessed in the past few days is bound up in the despicable, deadly conflation of citizens with the state and the military. That conflation singularly is the thing we must guard against in all responses to the attacks just as it was after the September 11th attacks. For all the many, many ways that the George W. Bush administration failed in its response to 9/11, to his credit, less than a week after the attacks, President Bush went to Washington to a mosque and made it clear the Muslim community was not our enemy.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. (editing jump) Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens and take out their anger don't represent the best of America. They represent the worse of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.
HAYES: Humans are humans. It's the singular principle of faith through all this. Our neighbors of all backgrounds are not our enemies. That simple fact must be sacrosanct, our north star as we navigate this very frightening and dangerous time.