Alex Wagner has been at the helm of her new 4pm MSNBC show for just two days now, but she’s already living up to the legacy of inflammatory rhetoric and unwarranted attacks left by former MSNBC hosts.

In a discussion of the debate in the Senate over unemployment benefits, Wagner labeled a bill intended to help extend benefits for the 1.4 million unemployed in unnecessarily divisive terms:

Of course republicans in both chambers have different ideas. They are less concerned about getting aid to those who need it than they are finding other funding sources to pay for it. One of the plans being floated is from New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte. It would bar undocumented immigrants from claiming a refundable child tax credit, which would satisfy the party's twin desires of further alienating immigrants while at the same time fighting further assistance to the poor by instituting a new standard of frugality.

The exact scope and nature of Wagner’s MSNBC mandate is unclear, though obviously attracting higher ratings would be a part of it. But given the high profile episodes of former hosts Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir, and current host Melissa Harris-Perry, Wagner’s below the belt blow to Republicans seems entirely consistent with the rest of the lineup.