This week Joy Reid is apparently substituting for Chris Hayes on MSNBC. I tuned in for 2 minutes during a commercial and I saw Reid give a monologue about Abraham Lincoln's greatest mistake. Reid thinks that Lincoln goofed in a really major way when he changed vice presidents when he ran for a second term. During his first term, the Lincoln VP was Hannibal Hamlin, a Republican from Maine and a strong supporter of rights for freed slaves (according to Reid). Lincoln replaced Hamlin with Andrew Johnson who was a Democrat from Tennessee. When Lincoln was killed, Johnson took office and didn't want to support rights for freed slaves.
What shocked me about this was not the silliness of Reid's views. No, it was the constant mistakes of history in what she said. Remember, I only listened for at most two minutes. During that time Reid said that switching vice presidents was Lincoln's biggest mistake during his six years in office. Lincoln was only president for a few weeks longer than 4 years. Reid also said that Lincoln was assassinated after five years in office. Nope, Lincoln was killed just three weeks after being sworn in for his second term. That's four years. So in the space of just a few lines, Reid managed to give conflicting statements for the length of Lincoln's time in office and to be wrong with both.
These are not difficult facts. Surely someone at MSNBC is knows them. Even if they don't know them, they are easy to look up. How is it possible that some writer wrote Reid's statement, an editor looked at it and other people saw it in advance but not one of them noticed this elementary mistake of American history?
What shocked me about this was not the silliness of Reid's views. No, it was the constant mistakes of history in what she said. Remember, I only listened for at most two minutes. During that time Reid said that switching vice presidents was Lincoln's biggest mistake during his six years in office. Lincoln was only president for a few weeks longer than 4 years. Reid also said that Lincoln was assassinated after five years in office. Nope, Lincoln was killed just three weeks after being sworn in for his second term. That's four years. So in the space of just a few lines, Reid managed to give conflicting statements for the length of Lincoln's time in office and to be wrong with both.
These are not difficult facts. Surely someone at MSNBC is knows them. Even if they don't know them, they are easy to look up. How is it possible that some writer wrote Reid's statement, an editor looked at it and other people saw it in advance but not one of them noticed this elementary mistake of American history?
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