she deserves an apology that's on point tonight She interviewed fetterman a couple of weeks ago using a similar closed captioning system as the debate and said this at the end of her report on the interview in small talk before the interview without captioning it wasn't clear he was understanding our conversation Democrats at the time called her an ableist second only to a racist in your sense of privilege and pride and ability to look down on others fetterman's wife actually demanded that NBC discipline her the rest of the media piled on but uh journalists and other
stroke survivors are coming to fetterman's defense after Dasha Burns did a hatchet job on him I actually thought it was inappropriate that she said during Small Talk uh before our internships it is bothersome that a journalist would go about basically um Throwing Shade for lack of a better term this man's recovery process now we all know the truth Dasha reported the facts and people didn't like it we'll spare you more of the cringe-worthy moments from last night to be fair we are a little selfish in playing fetterman over and over is bad for Ratings nobody
wants to watch a man suffer like that and as we said last night we have to applaud his courage and honor to come out to the debate stage in the first place but the clip of apologies to Dasha should be coming clips for telling the obvious truth that what was happening last night was predictable we can't run that clip we can't run those headlines or those tweets we don't have any of them because they don't exist this brings up a new and troubling phenomenon ableist is the new racist if you dare question someone's ability to
do the job it's your problem not theirs here's Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania last night on Cuomo tonight we had a lesson in what what it means to be able to have a debate about issues even with something as fundamental as closed captioning with which is so basic to our our policy in the last 30 years ever since we had the Americans with Disabilities Act in place people are doing their jobs every day working through those challenges like John did tonight to be fair Casey might have watched a different debate than all of us did
but let me translate what you just heard if you don't change your bar of ability for a U.S senator it's your problem you're an ableist you are prejudiced against disabled people if you don't vote for John fetterman a republican George H.W bush signed the American with Disabilities Act requiring reasonable accommodation for those with disabilities and God bless them we are all better for helping people achieve their highest level where a hearing aid now you can hear and go forth you will be judged on your ability in fact Bill Clinton as president got fitted for a
hearing aid he was never penalized because he couldn't hear without his hearing aid if you're in a wheelchair as some senators and congressmen and governors are there are now elevators that are accessible there are elevators and bathrooms inside the capital that are accessible as well people can go on and perform their job fetterman's performance last night caused the problem nobody cares that he used closed captioning people care he couldn't articulate a single coherent argument on the issues of the day reasonable people can agree he showed he couldn't perform the job of a United States Senator
as we all know it that did not stop msnbc's Liz plank what's our learning opportunity after tonight's PA Senate debate she wrote how can we design a society that is truly open to people with disabilities or this tweet when your side is so bad you have to rely on ableism to win Dr Oz just gave a master class on how to bully people with disabilities fetterman got his closed captioning but he couldn't perform with the accommodation but now if you don't vote for him you're a bully you're an ableist this isn't some Fringe position this
is msnbc's live blogger never mind that msnbc's own reporter was the one that she said couldn't understand their conversation just two weeks ago imagine that trip to the office coffee maker Dasha the ableist and Planck the Arbiter of ableist no different talking about ableists than it is when you talk about crime and people like Liz plank call you a racist no different than if you don't want your daughter competing against boys in transgender situation then you are suddenly transphobic if you want to judge people on performance perverse protected class you are labeled an IST an
ableist a sexist prejudiced racist all the same thing the facts actually don't matter it's about power not about helping people or standing up for the under privileged or disadvantaged
