When the Christmas Day bomber news made headlines, Republicans saw it as
an opportune moment to backlash Democrats on the handling of Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab’s case. Now, a new series of “wrongs” from Republican
Maine Senator Susan M. Collins, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham
and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have Rachel Maddow doing double fact checking duty with Nation DC Editor Chris Hayes analyzing the
Democrats’ response.
Some of the “wrongs” include the belief that Abdulmutallab should not
have been given rights to a lawyer, the Obama administration did not
seek any input from top administration officials when handling his case,
and the administration handed him to a lawyer after a 50-minute
interview. Maddow quickly identifies how they are all “wrong, wrong,
wrong.” As Hayes argues, the Democrats’ are slow to defend their
correct, and right position.
Yet he finds there is more pressing fear that the Republicans are going
“far to the right of Dick Cheney” and debating policies that are
frankly, not legal to change. “It’s just not legally permissible to do
the things that Mitch McConnell wants, A., and B., we are really
starting to see the dangers of this slippery-slopeness and this is what
civil libertarians have been warning about.”
—Clarissa León
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