Major dust-up between campaign surrogates on "Cuomo Prime Time."
HILARY ROSEN, BIDEN CAMPAIGN SURROGATE: You know, Nina referenced Dr. Martin Luther King [Jr.] before saying he said from the Birmingham jail that we should be concerned about white moderates. That's actually not what Martin Luther King said. What he said --
NINA TURNER, SANDERS CAMPAIGN SURROGATE: He did say that.
ROSEN: He said we should be worried about the silence of white moderates.
TURNER: Don't tell me about Martin Luther King Jr. Are you kidding me?
ROSEN: Nina --
CUOMO: She's making a language point, Nina.
ROSEN: What he said was we should be worrying about the silence of white moderates. And what we have in Joe Biden is a man that's not silent. He has a long record and many, many votes that in today's world feel like the wrong thing, were the wrong thing and he has discussed that over and over again as Bernie Sanders did on the gun votes and other things. So we can be talking about votes from 20 years ago or we can be talking about people's values and who they trust. And that's what Joe Biden is going to be talking about.
CUOMO: Last quick point to you, Nina.
TURNER: What Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was talking about, he said it is the point that the white moderate wants things to be comfortable instead of focusing in on the bigger threat is not necessarily the white KKK member but more the white moderate that is more comfortable with keeping things the same while pretending like there is no tension than to deal --
ROSEN: Don't use Martin Luther King against Joe Biden. You don't have that --
TURNER: First of all --
ROSEN: You don't have that standing. I'm sorry. You don't.
TURNER: Don't tell me what kind of standing I have as a black woman in America. How dare you?
ROSEN: You have a lot of standing as a black woman in America.
TURNER: First of all, you're dipping into something you don't understand. You need to -- I did not demean you --
ROSEN: You don't have the standing to attack Joe Biden using Martin Luther King's words.
TURNER: I didn't attack anybody. You're taking it that way.
Listen, don't dip into what I have to say about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. How dare you as a white woman try to tell me --
ROSEN: That is not what I said. Don't you do that.
TURNER: -- trying to tell me what I'm supposed to feel and what I'm doing what now.
CUOMO: Nina, Hillary, I'm out of time on this one --
For what it's worth, the passage in question:
"I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Well, Rosen didn't make things better.
Her first twitter apology:
"On air thurs I said my colleague @ninaturner didn't have a standing to use MLK Jr. That was wrong. I am sorry for saying those words. [Please] no need to defend me and attack angry black women. They have standing. I always need to listen more than I talk. we rise together"
So that go deleted and she's gone with:
"I’m horrified that anyone would think i would call Nina Turner 'an angry black woman' I would NEVER!! After the TV hit last night, I was getting tons of ugly messages to keep fighting her using that phrase. I was trying to tell people to STOP. Cause I KNEW I needed to apologize," Rosen said. "I unequivocally know I disrespected her and I wanted to make it right by telling disgusting white folks to stop. Wow did that tweet go wrong. I am so sorry."
"2/2 I unequivocally know I disrespected her and I wanted to make it right by telling disgusting white folks to stop. Wow did that tweet go wrong. I am so sorry."
So now Sanders gets to try out the "you have to control your people better" attack for himself.
".@JoeBiden must accept responsibility for his surrogate telling our campaign co-chair Senator @NinaTurner that she doesn't have standing to invoke the words of Dr. King. That is unacceptable and Joe must apologize to Nina and all the people of color supporting our campaign."
Finally, this isn't Rosen's first faceplant. She was shuffled away from attention during the Obama administration when she stated Mrs. Romney had "never worked a day in her life" which rightfully upset liberal and conservative women alike.
