Rachel Maddow Blasts the Right for Celebrating Chicago’s Failed Olympic Bid

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:07 pm

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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was on NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, and she had some harsh words for those on the right who are calling President Obama a failure and celebrating Chicago’s failed bid to host the Olympics. Maddow said, “For them to be cheering America’s loss here on the right I think is sort of disgusting.”

Here is the full clip:

Maddow said, “Well, the unseemly cheering on the right for America losing its Olympic bid I think is going to be the taste that lingers a long time after this failure. Certainly the president tried to get something and he didn’t get it, and people who hate the president feel like that’s a cause for celebration. But to see, for example, the Weekly Standard post “Chicago loses, Chicago loses, cheers erupt at Weekly Standard headquarters” I think says a lot more about the Weekly Standard, it says a lot more about the right right now than it does about this loss.”

She continued, “In 2012, London got the Olympics after Blair tried for them; in 2014, Russian got them–Russia got them after Putin tried for them; and in 2016 all four finalists had their head of government or head of state to make the argument. Obama did nothing unreasonable. And it would’ve been a shock if Chicago won. For them to be cheering America’s loss here on the right I think is sort of disgusting.”

Mark Murphy said that he was enjoying the hypocrisy of the Democrats now attacking Republicans patriotism, but in this case, I think that there is something unpatriotic in rooting for an American city to lose a bid to host the Olympics just because a Democratic president made the pitch. This situation is nothing like when Republicans invoked 9/11 and flag waving to invade Iraq, win elections, and squash disagreement.

I do think that the extreme politicization of every single issue, big or small, is bad for the country. If we can’t even agree that it would be a good thing for a U.S. city to host the Olympics, what can we agree on? The answer would seem to be, not much. I don’t think this zealot like partisanship is good for the country. Just because both parties are doing it, doesn’t make it right.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association