MSNBC's Morning Joe had
some fun Monday morning with that clip of Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn "dodging" NBC's Kasie Hunt's questions about Obamacare and whether she would have supported it. In the clip, provided by the pro-Republican super PAC America Rising, Nunn does really appear to dodge the question.
NBC: Would you have voted for the Affordable Care Act?
NUNN: So at the time that the Affordable Health Care Act was passed, I was working for Points Of Light. I wish that we had had more people who had tried to architect a bipartisan legislation. […]
NBC: So, yes or no?
NUNN: So, you know, I think it's impossible to look back retrospectively and say 'what would you have done when you were there?'
But that's just a small snippet of the actual interview, Slate's Dave Weigel
discovers, and while Nunn's full answer isn't perfectly straightforward as to whether she'd have voted for the law, it's much more on point that the snippet included in the video. That includes a solid discussion of what she'd like to see in the law.
NUNN: But when I look at it, I think of: What do we need to do going forward? I think, you know, I come at it from the perspective of someone who made payroll, who saw rising health care premiums, who believes that we actually need to work together, to make changes where it's not working and to improve the things that already are working. So I think we need to add a more affordable tier of insurance for individuals and families who have high premiums.
I think we need to add a tax credit for small businesses. And I also think we need to repeal the cuts to rural hospitals as a result of our state not expanding Medicaid. At the time time I don't think we need to go backwards. We need to make sure that people who have pre-existing conditions have access to health care. That people who now have children that are under age 26 because of it—I talked to a constituent not long ago who said I'm so grateful, I sleep better every night because my three sons, age 20 to 26, can be covered by my insurance. So I think we need to move forward and go forward to insure that everyone has quality health care. […]
NUNN: I think it's impossible to look back retrospectively and say, "What would you have done if you were there?" Because I wasn't there, and we now have hindsight. What I can do is say: Here's where we are today, and here's what we should do, which is move forward.
She also states that she is definitely opposed to repeal. What Nunn gave was a detailed, nuanced and fairly informed answer on Obamacare and what she believes needs to be done with it, given the reality that it is law. Instead of rehashing the now-dead fights over the legislation, she's talking about what's actually relevant to someone running for Congress now. What America Rising—and Morning Joe—went with was an incomplete and deceptive edit suggesting Nunn had nothing productive to say about the law except she didn't know if she'd have voted for it. Tell us again the MSNBC is in the bag for Obama.