MSNBC hosts mock conservatives' latest war against fictional character Big Bird

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan and Ayman Mohyeldin attacked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for going nuts over a fictional character getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Sesame Street" participated in a children's Q&A with host Erin Hill over the weekend and it triggered Cruz, who has come out against vaccine mandates. Many Republicans, in fact, have opposed vaccine mandates, but Big Bird, who is described as a "six-year-old walking, talking yellow bird with long orange legs, standing 8 feet 2 inches," wasn't advocating vaccine mandates. He was helping children understand that shots can be scary.

"Before I hand it over have you seen this tweet of Sen. Ted Cruz railing against one of the big villains of our time?" said Hasan with a smirk. "I'm talking about Big Bird. Big Bird. The lovable, very imaginary character who tweeted out that he got the COVID vaccine to encourage kids to get it, too, and Cruz smacked him down and Big Bird's tweet as government propaganda. You can't make this stuff up can you?"

"No, the crazy thing is it is an imaginary character and you are tweeting it out as if it is real government propaganda and then when you look at some of the other tweets from some of the other right-wing conservatives and members of the media that went after Big Bird, they're calling it pure evil," said Mohyeldin citing Newsmax host Steve Cortes. "Just imagine calling Big Bird pure evil. They have no shame when they are going after something just to simply argue with science. I don't understand it, Mehdi."

Hasan joked that conservatives think that Dr. Fauci is hiding inside the costume, "like a two-for-one bogey man."

He then played a video from a 1972 episode of "Sesame Street" in which Big Bird was also advocating vaccinating children against things like measles, mumps, and rubella.

Big Bird has long been a foe of Republicans. During the 2012 campaign, then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R-MA, UT) called for Big Bird to be put on a breadline by cutting any funding to "Sesame Street." Only about 4 percent of the show's funding comes from U.S. government grant money.

See the video below:

Big Birdwww.youtube.com