MONTAGE: MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace's most unhinged comments
Liberal anchor Nicolle Wallace has previously claimed that Trump talked about ‘exterminating Latinos,’ critical race theory ‘wasn’t real,’ among other dubious comments.
"Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace compared so-called "dehumanization" tactics by Republican governors to Russian soldiers who rape children on Wednesday, but it was hardly her first over-the-top comment.
Wallace, a former GOP flack who's become one of the most rabidly anti-Republican voices in cable news, spoke with Bulwark writer Tim Miller on recent efforts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to pass parental rights in education bills in their states, before making another eyebrow-raising remark.
In 2018, Nicolle Wallace admitted that she once encouraged Jeb Bush to physically attack then-candidate Donald Trump after a heated debate during the 2016 Republican primary race.(Getty Images)
"I worry in covering Glenn Youngkin and his politics of ‘parental choice,’ all the focus was on how well it worked. And even in our conversations about DeSantis it’s about how well they’re serving him," Wallace said. "The truth is dehumanization as a tactic for politics is from war. Dehumanization, it's a tactic, it's being used right now, Russians get the soldiers to rape children by dehumanizing them. Dehumanization as a practice is a tactic of war. It's being deployed in our politics and people like you and I sometimes lose the plot and admire its effectiveness, not its substance."
Last year, Wallace – who has a history of fawning over liberal guests including disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti – was mocked for referring to herself as a "Fauci groupie," in reference to her adoration of White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.
"I'm a Fauci groupie," Wallace said. "I'm thrice-vaccinated, mask adherent. I buy KN95 masks by the, you know, caseload. They're in every pocket. I wear them everywhere except when I sit down."
While the Fauci remarks resulted in good-natured mockery, Wallace has also made headlines for a variety of less comical comments. In November, she declared that critical race theory "isn’t real" while covering Youngkin the night of his victory in Virginia, a result that plainly infuriated her.
MSNBC'S EX-REPUBLICAN FLACK NICOLLE WALLACE HAS HISTORY OF FAWNING OVER LIBERAL GUESTS
"He worshipped at the altar of Donald Trump," Wallace said. "So, I think that the real ominous thing, is that critical race theory, which isn’t real, turned the suburbs 15 points to the Trump-insurrection-endorsed Republican."
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace and Bulwark writer Tim Miller.
Wallace was forced to issue an apology in 2019 after falsely claiming that then-President Trump was talking about "exterminating Latinos." She famously promoted the now-disgraced Lincoln Project on a regular basis before co-founder John Weaver was revealed as an online sexual harasser going back years, and she has even called for violence on more than one occasion.
When discussing then-press secretary Sarah Sanders in 2018, MSNBC’s Wallace asked NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker how she can "resist the temptation to run up and wring her neck" at press conferences.
Wallace also admitted that she once encouraged Jeb Bush to physically attack then-candidate Donald Trump after a heated debate during the 2016 Republican primary race.
"I told Jeb Bush after that debate that I thought he should have punched [Trump] in the face," Wallace said during her show. "He insulted your wife, he came down the escalator and called Mexicans rapists and murderers."
Wallace – who worked for Jeb Bush when he was the Florida governor – said Bush asked her what he could have done following Trump’s personal attacks, which included using the derogatory nickname "low energy" Jeb.
"I think you should have punched him in the face and then gotten out of the race. You would have been a hero," Wallace said.
MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace has a long history of making outlandish comments.
That same year Wallace came under fire for a derogatory comment about then-first lady Melania Trump and first daughter Ivanka, asking if they are "dead inside" or simply being "paid off" when pondering how they deal with allegations against then-President Trump.
"Are they just the most stoic human beings, are they numb, are they dead inside, are they paid off, I mean, what’s their deal?" Wallace asked.
In 2020, Wallace suggested Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., was "in cahoots" with Russia in order to defeat Joe Biden in the presidential election.
Last year, Wallace called the Republican Party the "most sort of destructive force on the planet" and floated a conspiracy that the conservative Supreme Court justices are "colluding" with GOP lawmakers from red states in order to push the pro-life agenda.
"I don't know the legal term but it sounds a whole lot like collusion between Republican-dominated rightwing-centric legislatures and the far-right members of the United States Supreme Court – whether it's a crime or whether it's real, maybe Mueller will look into it," Wallace said, referring to Russia investigation chief Robert Mueller.
Before pivoting to a new career as liberal pundit, Wallace worked on the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain.
She's one of the faces of MSNBC's political coverage, anchoring election night news programs with fellow left-wing hosts Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow, and MSNBC expanded her daytime show to two hours in 2020.
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Wallace's loathing of the Republican Party is only matched by her enthusiastic boosting of the Democratic Party; she boasted repeatedly during the 2020 cycle that she would vote for the eventual Democratic nominee and often fawned over the candidates, praising Kamala Harris as a "badass," saying "everyone loves Joe Biden," calling Pete Buttigieg "chicken soup for my soul," and asking Beto O'Rourke how the media could cover the candidates better.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn, David Rutz, Lindsay Kornick and Cortney O’Brien contributed to this report.