MSNBC's Chris Hayes took to Twitter Monday and accused the "American right-wing" of not caring about American POWs:
Am I correct that the American right-wing has spent the day arguing we should have left an American soldier behind?
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 2, 2014 Conservatives immediately pushed back hard on Hayes' assertion and the ensuing Hayes-bash was entertaining and withering.
Thankfully, America has @chrislhayes's military insights. He should have been my War College professor. He's just that awesome. #caring
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) June 3, 2014 The Twitter smack-down did not deter Hayes from devoting the lion's share of time on his barely-viewed MSNBC show, "All In," to the dubious proposition. Coming just short of questioning conservatives' patriotism or their support of our troops engaged in what used to be called the war on terror.
Hayes presented a lengthy montage of conservative commentators and politicians questioning the wisdom of releasing high-level Taliban terrorists from Gitmo in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. He then spoke with a Pentagon spokesman and addressed him with questions peppered with implications suggesting that not rescuing Bowe from captivity would be tantamount to leaving an American soldier behind on the field of battle. He ended the segment with a journalist from the Washington Post who continued the narrative that any objection to releasing terrorists in exchange for an American POW was detrimental to American interests.
Watch the entire segment above as it is a lesson in how to question an entire group's patriotism, in this case the "American right-wing" without ever actually calling them unpatriotic.
