MSNBC guest host David Shuster was suspended by MSNBC today after making the following remark about Chelsea Clinton:
SHUSTER: Bill, there’s just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea’s out there calling up celebrities, saying support my mom, and she’s apparently also calling these super delegates.
BILL PRESS: Hey, she’s working for her mom. What’s unseemly about that? During the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad. I think it’s great, I think she’s grown up in a political family, she’s got politics in her blood, she loves her mom, she thinks she’d make a great president —
SHUSTER: But doesn’t it seem like Chelsea’s sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?
PRESS: No! If she didn’t want to be there she wouldn’t be there. Give Chelsea a break.
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson called the remark “beneath contempt” and disgusting according to the AP. Said Wolfson: “I, at this point, can’t envision a scenario where we would continue to engage in debates on that network.”
Media Matters reports that MSNBC has suspended Shuster and released the following statement: “Shuster, who apologized this morning on MSNBC and will again this evening, has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts, other than to make his apology. He has also extended an apology to the Clinton family. NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks.”
