NBC's Chip Reid revived GOP “cut and run” line

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

On MSNBC News Live, NBC News correspondent Chip Reid reported that some Democrats are concerned they may be “portrayed as the cut-and-run party” for the 2006 elections. But “cut and run” is a Republican term used to disparage Democratic proposals advocating timetables and plans for U.S. troop withdrawal in Iraq.


On the December 7 edition of MSNBC News Live, NBC News correspondent Chip Reid reported that some Democrats are concerned they may be “portrayed as the cut-and-run party” for the 2006 elections. “Cut and run,” however, is a Republican term used to disparage Democratic proposals advocating timetables and plans for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Most recently, the “cut and run” label was applied to Rep. John P. Murtha's (D-PA) November 17 resolution (House Joint Resolution 73) that would have forced the U.S. military to withdraw from Iraq “at the earliest practicable date.” As Media Matters for America documented, Reid used the term on the November 15 edition of NBC Nightly News, reporting that Republicans “accus[ed] Democrats of supporting a cut-and-run strategy.”

From the December 7 edition of MSNBC News Live, in which Reid reported on a “split” between House and Senate Democrats on plans to withdraw from Iraq:

REID: But on the other issue, on what to do about the troops in Iraq, you're going to see a bit of a split. And that has some Democrats concerned because Jack Reid [sic: Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)] and most senators believe that the president has not been candid, he doesn't have a real plan for success, but they do not have a specific timetable for getting the troops out. But on the House side, Jack Murtha and Nancy Pelosi [D-CA], the Democratic leader over there, agrees with him on this. He wants the troops -- Murtha wants the troops to come out now. He wants them to start coming out right away, and to be out within the next six months, keep some kind of smaller force in the region just in case. But it is a split between the -- among Democrats: mostly the Senate saying “we want a plan, but not a specific date,” the House increasingly saying -- and Nancy Pelosi says more than half the Democrats in the House favor this plan of getting them out within six months. Some Democrats very concerned that in next year's elections they could be protrayed as the cut-and-run party if that Murtha/Pelosi position prevails.