MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Statement

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REP. KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA: Great to be here.

SCHULTZ: How psycho is it--how psycho is it to throw out the idea of not giving any funding to NPR? What are your thoughts on this?

ELLISON: Well, it"s absolutely psycho, but the basic idea"s they don"t want anybody to hear anything other than FOX News. They don"t want free and objective and open sources of news so people can make decisions. They want to have a monopoly on their perspective, which is absolutely wrong. You know I hope that people out there see this as a call to get involved and get involved in their government because there are people who don"t want you to know what"s going on, they just want you to have a FOX News perspective on everything. They even are afraid of NPR.

SCHULTZ: Now, Juan Williams comes out and says, well, they were looking for a reason to get rid of him anyway. Hello, welcome to the real world. There"s millions of people out there that have gotten a pink slip in business and gotten no explanation as to why they got fired. I mean, I think the right wing is just using this as a big opportunity to squash dissenting voices or any kind of opinion that"s out there, but his comment about getting on an airplane and being uneasy and I"m paraphrasing here, being uneasy when he sees Muslims and those who have the Muslim attire, what"s your response to that, congressman? You"re a Muslim.

ELLISON: Well, would he be scared of my 14-year-old daughter who might wear a hair cover? Would he be scared of a Sikh, who is--probably doesn"t even know the difference of a Sikh and a Muslim. I mean, it"s just that ugly, bigoted statement and sadly Juan Williams has taken a back to all the work he"s ever did around civil rights, you know, with eyes on the prize and things like that. I feel like taking that stuff off of my shelf and putting it in the garbage, because I just really feel he"s dishonored his legacy to that extent. Juan Williams though in exchange of his bigotry was able to get a $2 million multiyear contract. So he"s not going to go without, no matter what happens but I"m very disappointed in Juan Williams and if he has any integrity at all, he will apologize profusely to the people of this country.

Let me just point out one more thing too, Ed. The people who got on that airline on 9/11, they made sure that they didn"t have any so-called Muslim garb, whatever that is. They made sure that they were as mainstream-looking as they possibly could because they were trying to harm our country. So it"s the people who are just practicing their faith or their culture more likely, these people aren"t any danger to our country. These folks are minding their own business, by and large, and should not be bothered at all. But that fact is that it"s people like Juan Williams who contribute to profiling, harassing Americans who may happen to be from diverse, different sorts of backgrounds, it"s really an ugly thing. I think it"s un-American what Juan Williams said, and I think that NPR"s well within its rights to make a decision that his perspective is not one that is--is down--down the middle and calls the facts like they really are and provide this good news service to the American people.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, you"re right on the mark. I also should point out that if those folks over at FOX News are so concerned about whether Juan Williams is going to be on the air again, why don"t they just support the fairness doctrine and then all sides will always get their fair choice and their fair time on the air.

ELLISON: You and I both know the last thing that they want is the fairness doctrine.

SCHULTZ: Absolutely.

ELLISON: They want their side doctrine.

SCHULTZ: Keith Ellison, always a pleasure. Great to have you with us, congressman. All of the best.

ELLISON: Thanks, Ed.

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