During an exchange Monday on the country’s response to Ebola, MSNBC personality and “Morning Joe” regular Donny Deutsch may have unwittingly provided fodder to Fox News.
Citing a recent piece by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Deutsçh expressed annoyance at the hysteria over the outbreak.
“I don’t know if you guys feel this. Robert Reich wrote a piece that touched on this that we’re kind of a nation of cowards now. Every time I run into somebody who’s on north shore of Long Island — ‘I’m afraid of Ebola’ — it’s just, shut up. You know, are you not getting, yes, this is something that’s serious. Just stop it. Stop it.”
The show’s host Joe Scarborough said that the widespread fear is a byproduct of a lack of trust in leaders.
“I also think they’re cowards,” Deutsch said.
Deutsch’s words brought back memories of Attorney General Eric Holder’s remarks in 2009, which set off outrage among Republicans and conservatives.
“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and we — I believe continue to be in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards,” Holder said during an event celebrating Black History Month.
Deutsch’s comments come around the 7:25 mark:
