MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell took a good portion of his program “The Last Word” Thursday night to complain about networks, including his own, covering Republican nominee Donald Trump’s press conference live earlier in the day.
“It’s 2016 all over again. The same mistakes are being made. I have never seen an industry slower at learning from its own stupid mistakes than the American news business,” he said.
Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared images from multiple networks — including MSNBC — covering Trump’s over hour-long presser at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
This is the type of leadership and transparency the American people deserve.
This is what the mainstream media should demand from KAMALA! 18 Days! No questions! pic.twitter.com/AaZmNZAoQv
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) August 8, 2024
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One of O’Donnell’s big beefs was that while the networks covered Trump’s news conference live, they did not cover an event Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held in Detroit Wednesday night.
Well, her major event this week was a rally in Philadelphia the previous night, when she introduced Walz as her pick for the No. 2 spot, which did receive extensive coverage from the media networks, including Fox News.
And Trump’s news conference was the only public event he had held so far this week. So to give both candidates time on their networks meant covering the event. So one strike against O’Donnell. It’s a silly critique. Kamala got plenty of coverage.
O’Donnell then unleashed on Trump saying, “It would be hard to find a sentence in what Donald Trump said today that did not include at least one lie.”
Do you think the media should cover Trump speeches?
All Trump did was answer questions. O’Donnell may not have liked what he said, but that does not make it a “lie.”
The host offered the example of when Trump said Harris was not “smart enough” to hold a news conference.
“I’m sorry, we need smart people to lead this country, because our country’s never been in this danger before, both economically and … from an outside perspective,” he said.
Watching Trump’s press conference at Mar-a-Lago must have gone great today. Liberals are calling it a #TrumpMeltdown, but since they’re always on the wrong side of everything, #MAGA country can once again stand proud. By the way, where’s Kamala’s pressers? pic.twitter.com/zKPZ2bHS9d
— Liberals Leaving (@LiberalsLeaving) August 8, 2024
Well there are plenty of examples supporting Trump’s view that Harris struggles to respond to even the most mundane and straightforward of questions from reporters. That probably explains why the vice president has avoided the press since announcing her candidacy in the middle of July. She has promised to do an interview some time by the end of August. And that likely will be with a very friendly news outlet.
Below is a compilation video put out by the Trump campaign including when NBC News anchor Lester Holt pointed out in July 2021, that, as border czar, Harris had never been to the border.
“And I haven’t been to Europe,” she answered, then nervously laughed (as she often does in such situations) and said, “I don’t understand the point that you’re making.”
Team Trump releases a brutal montage of Kamala Harris without her script
This is why they’re hiding her pic.twitter.com/viVVRkTcL9
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 9, 2024
In another soundbite Harris talked like a second grade teacher explaining, “Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine, so basically that’s wrong.”
The vice president also discussed the “cloud” storage of data files as existing “above us,” rather than on servers and felt she had to inform people that “AI is a fancy thing. First of all it’s two letters. It means artificial intelligence.”
When asked by a reporter in 2021 why the Biden administration’s then-proposed $1.75 trillion Build Back Better program would not spark more inflation (as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan already had) and how she would solve the current levels of inflation Harris responded, “Prices have gone up.”
“Families and individuals are dealing with the realities of, that bread costs more, that gas costs more. And was have to understand what that means. That’s about the cost of living,” she continued.
“It’s a big issue, and we take it seriously,” Harris concluded, without answering either question.
So it’s safe to say she’s not the best on her feet.
Team Trump releases a brutal montage of Kamala Harris without her script
This is why they’re hiding her pic.twitter.com/viVVRkTcL9
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 9, 2024
Nonetheless, networks, O’Donnell argued, could have countered Trump’s claim about Harris’ intelligence by pointing out she graduated from Howard University and the University of California Hastings College of the Law.
True, but that has nothing to do with her ability to conduct a news conference.
The host also trained his fire on MSNBC for not showing all of Harris’ Detroit speech.
“This network brought you the last few minutes of Kamala Harris’ speech live, but was actually doing Olympics coverage when the speech began,” O’Donnell said.
He then self-righteously added he would right the wrong by showing her speech in its entirety on his Thursday night program, which he did. Good for O’Donnell.
Overall, the MSNBC’s host criticism was silly and meant to pander to his Trump-hating audience.
Harris got plenty of air time this week, and Trump deserved some too.
