Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is calling for a boycott of MSNBC after the network tweeted, and then deleted, comments last night about "right wingers" hating biracial families.
"While we understand MSNBC will go to great lengths to discredit Republicans and conservatives, this kind of attack on the millions of Americans who identify with the political right is offensive and unacceptable. Unfortunately, this tweet is just the latest in a pattern of poor statements by MSNBC and its hosts," Priebus said in a statement.
Priebus has sent a letter to MSNBC President Phil Griffin demanding a direct and personal apology and will not allow RNC employees to appear on the network until the apology is made.
"Until he takes internal corrective action and personally apologizes—not just to the RNC but to all right-of-center Americans—I’m banning all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC. As an elected official, strategist, or surrogate, I’m asking for you to agree to the same," Priebus said. "We can have our political disagreements with MSNBC, but using biracial families to launch petty and ridiculous political attacks is low, even by MSNBC’s standards. It only coarsens our political discourse."
Priebus also reminded people that the statement sent out last night on MSNBC's official Twitter feed is only one example of a continuing bad habit at the network.
"MSNBC hosts—including Alec Baldwin, Martin Bashir, Melissa Harris-Perry, Alex Wagner, and Ronan Farrow just to name a few—have had a troubling streak in the last several weeks of making comments that belittle and demean Americans without furthering any thoughtful dialogue. Perhaps it's time for the executives at MSNBC to consider whether their network is upholding a meaningful journalistic mission," Priebus said. "This is more than just a tweet or an offhand comment. This is part of a pattern of behavior that has gotten markedly worse, and until Phil Griffin personally apologizes and takes corrective action, we cannot be part of this network's toxic programming."
MSNBC has not revealed which staffer sent out the tweet last night and after it was deleted, Executive Editor of MSNBC.com Richard Wolffe said the comments about right wingers and biracial families were "dumb" and not "who we are."