Media top headlines January 20
In media news today, Biden appears to lose his cool after a reporter’s question on divisiveness, NPR stands by mask report as three SCOTUS justices refute its claims, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow says Biden used his long press conference to show Putin he has ‘stamina.’
Former Democratic Labor Secretary Robert Reich became the latest figure on the left to viciously attack Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., over her filibuster stance, suggesting Senate Democrats should assault her for it.
"Tonight, Republican senators lined up to shake Kyrsten Sinema's hand," he wrote in a now-deleted tweet on Thursday. "Democratic senators should have given her the backs of their hands."
On Thursday afternoon, he said he deleted the tweet because "it was widely misinterpreted and distorted by conservative media," calling "back of the hand" an "idiom for rebuke."
Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., joined all 50 Senate Republicans on Wednesday in opposing the attempt to alter the Senate filibuster on party lines, resulting in a 48-52 final tally. As predicted, Democrats failed to advance their expansive election overhaul bills over the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
(Getty Images/Reuters)
Sinema has particularly enraged liberals for her steadfast support for maintaining the filibuster, and Reich's suggestion that Democrats should hit a woman for her stance drew outrage.
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National Review's Charles Cooke said Reich's remark was tantamount to saying Sinema "must be slapped around by her party if she fails to follow the demands of a white man."
"No big deal," tweeted radio host Larry O'Connor. "Just Democrat/Socialist icon [Robert Reich] encouraging violence against a female senator who didn't vote the way he wanted."
Just last year, Reich scolded Republicans as "actively opposed to ending the epidemic of violence against women in America." In 2020, he shared remarks from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., after she accused a House Republican of verbally accosting her. Reich urged "all men" to let her message sink in about not accepting "violent language against women."
The Arizona Democrat has been the subject of sharp and even personal attacks from the left for maintaining her support for the filibuster. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Manchin and Sinema didn't care about Blacks and minorities in an interview last weekend.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema listens during a news conference in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on July 28, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Reich, now a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, served in the Clinton administration. The left-wing economist has made appearances on CNN and MSNBC over the years to comment on political and economic matters.
The university didn't respond to a request for comment.
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Reich also suggested Wednesday that because of the filibuster, Republicans had the "green light to cheat their way to victory in 2022, 2024, and every election thereafter."
Fox News' Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
This article was updated with Reich's explanation for deleting the tweet.