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Friday’s CBS Mornings embarrassed itself with a fawning segment of the bizarre and viral Māori protest in New Zealand parliament, fawning over it as a “beautiful” and “powerful” sign of confidence by women — including the leader of the Haka Dance, 22-year-old Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke — that featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers said he’s “going to save this video and show it” one day to his toddler.

They were so enthralled with the protest of a bill to redefine an indigenous treaty that, in a tease for the What to Watch segment, Duthiers even did his own impression of the Haka Dance with the CBS crew telling viewers to stick around to find out why he was doing it.

Duthiers gave his own cliffnotes version of why Maipi-Clarke and others deployed the Haka Dance on the floor of Parliament with others in the gallery:

So, the Maori members led by this young woman, 22-year- old Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke performed the Haka. This is a ceremonial dance and they did it to delay Parliament from voting on a change in an almost 200-year-old treaty. That treaty with Britain allowed Māori tribes to retain their lands and expand their privileges in government. Now, some members of Parliament argued that it discriminates against non- indigenous New Zealanders. The vote was suspended, the two lawmakers were ordered to leave the chamber. The Haka dance is a traditional dance that was done before the men and women would go off to fight in war and those facial expressions — that eh — was done to frighten the opponent. 

Dutheris gushed the he “love[s] young Hana, 22-year-old” and “I am going to save this video and show it to my daughter because we can only hope to have women in our lives that on the floor of Parliament…and the way she did it confidently was beautiful.”

“Powerful. That was powerful. Beautiful,” replied co-host Nate Burleson.

CBS Mornings Plus co-host Adriana Diaz swooned “it is just sick” and will be “cheering for her.”

Duthiers reiterated they protested because, in his explanation, “lawmakers in New Zealand are seeking to rewrite that treaty and we always know how that goes” and much like what we “experience here in the United States with our indigenous Americans.”

This might be shocking, I know, but this wasn’t quite the full story.

Thankfully, Townhall’s indefatigable Mia Cathell had a thorough breakdown that we’ll use as a fact-check.

Cathell first described the blow-by-blow of the protest and the immediate aftermath with the house speaker tossing Maipi-Clarke and one other lawmaker, but then got down to brass tacks.

“In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and hundreds of Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, paving the way for Britain’s declaration of sovereignty and the Crown colony’s establishment. Under the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, the Māori tribes were promised broad rights to retain their lands and safeguard their interests in return for ceding governance to the British,” she began, adding that the bill “would redefine the founding document to specify that those rights should apply to all New Zealanders.”

Perhaps the most incredible part of this? The bill’s lead sponsor, David Seymour of the libertarian-leaning party ACT Party, is Māori himself. And perhaps as equally amusing was the fact that Cathell noted “the unpopular bill is unlikely to become law” and was put on the floor as a condition for the 11-seat ACT Party joining the conservative governing coalition.

Nonetheless, Cathell said Seymour was referred to by another Māori member of Parliament as akin to a Klu Klux Klan member and caused “harm and…division” to the country.

Cathell also explained the issues with the treaty’s lack of specificity has led to more than a few issues, including “ethnic quotas” and reparations (click “expand”):

Seymour, who’s also New Zealand’s associate justice minister, argues that since the treaty’s principles were never legally defined, the courts have taken creative liberty to “justify actions that are contrary to the principle of equal rights,” such as unequal access to taxpayer-funded services and ethnic quotas in public institutions that run counter to the spirit of fairness for all New Zealanders regardless of ancestry.

Although the treaty itself is not enshrined in law, clauses in the document guide policy today, and aspects of it have been adopted over time into the legislation. Court rulings have since greatly expanded Māori privileges, and Seymour says this priority treatment discriminates against non-indigenous citizens.

The ACT Party is seeking a “democratization” of the treaty that would incorporate the voices of all New Zealanders through a democratic parliamentary process rather than via the Waitangi Tribunal, which has interpreted the treaty and prescribed policy without the electorate as a whole being democratically consulted.

Anti-“colonial oppression” activists, who believe that the Māori have been historically disenfranchised despite what they were promised, have worked to instill the “Māori way of life” in New Zealand. These efforts include obtaining billion-dollar land settlements as reparations, the teaching of the Māori language in New Zealand schools, and guaranteed positions in government.

To see the relevant CBS transcript from November 15, click here.