Maddow was discussing conservative Christian radio host Bryan Fischer, and then compared him to Coulter.

"Remember when people used to think that about Ann Coulter? Because Ann Coulter was this very hard-right pundit who’d say very outrageous things," she said. "And it was the sort of feeling of maybe AC is so extreme, she’s testing us. Right? This is, this is obviously designed to have an effect. This is designed to elucidate [elicit?] a response that says something about America. Oh, it’s art."

"Ann Coulter was revealed not as a political player or even as a pundit, but essentially as a comedian,” Maddow explained. “She is a conservative comedian. That’s what all her books and all of her appearances are now. Right – that’s a form of performance art.”

Coulter sent Poor an e-mail rebuttal:

THANK YOU! she wrote. Spouting off political opinions is easy -- comedy is hard.  Offering political opinions is especially easy when you make up stuff the way Rachel does, such as (short list):

1) The bridge in Minnesota collapsed because of Republican spending cuts.  (A year-long government investigation determined it was a design flaw.)

2) A census taker was murdered by right-wing anti-government types. (Another lengthy investigation established that he killed himself for the insurance money.)

3) Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped in Iraq. (The alleged victim -- who by the age of 20 had already accused three men of rape -- eventually admitted it was just one man, and the jury in her civil case concluded Jones was lying.)

 4) Gun rights activists holding a rally on the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord were, in fact, celebrating the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

5) Elizabeth Warren is a Native American.