NBC Decides Trump Has 'Overshadowed' Romney Clinching GOP Nomination
At the top of Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer worked to tarnish Mitt Romney officially becoming the GOP Nominee: "Mitt Romney secures the Republican presidential nomination....But will his ongoing relationship with Donald Trump overshadow his big moment? As Trump plays the birther card once again."
Moments later, Lauer continued to rain on Romney's achievement: "...even as he basks in the glow of securing the nomination, Donald Trump, who hosted a closed-door fundraiser for Romney in Las Vegas last night, has managed to once again grab some headlines by reigniting the debate over President Obama's birthplace. Should Romney have been quicker to distance himself from Trump?"
In the report that followed, correspondent Peter Alexander declared that Romney's campaign message had been "Trumped" and that, "On a day the Romney campaign wanted to celebrate in Las Vegas, instead it was dealing with a Trump side show..."
Meanwhile, a misleading on-screen headline read: "Not Letting Go; Trump Presses Birther Issue at Romney Fundraiser." That made it sound as if Trump made birther comments at an event with Romney present. In reality, the NBC coverage only showed Trump making such remarks in interviews separate from the event itself.
Alexander touted how: "The Obama campaign lashed out with this web video, attacking Romney for failing to shoot down extreme voices in his party..."
Wrapping up the report, Alexander was happy to highlight questions surrounding Romney's family heritage:
And the Romney campaign also released Mitt Romney's birth certificate late Tuesday, after a reporter's request, and yes, it shows that he, too, was born in the United States. But ironically, at the end of the day this Trump-fueled birth certificate battle ended up as a reminder that Romney's own father George Romney, who was born in Mexico, actually had his own birther controversy when he ran for president 44 years ago.
On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams proclaimed: "Donald Trump doubles down as an Obama birther, raising problems for Romney as Trump raises money for the candidate."
In that report, Alexander observed: "For Romney, who arrived in Las Vegas this afternoon with Trump's personal jet over his shoulder, the timing is awkward at the very least. With the two men scheduled to appear together at a private fundraiser tonight." He later concluded: "Now Romney finds himself having to answer questions about why he hasn't been more outspoken on this issue."
NBC has repeatedly hit Romney for his association with Trump, despite the celebrity businessman having two reality shows on the network.
Here is a full transcript of Alexander's May 30 Today report:
7:00AM ET TEASE:
MATT LAUER: It's a lock. Mitt Romney secures the Republican presidential nomination by winning the Texas primary. But will his ongoing relationship with Donald Trump overshadow his big moment? As Trump plays the birther card once again.
7:01AM ET TEASE:
ANN CURRY: Mitt Romney says he's honored and humbled to be the GOP nominee. It's an accomplishment that's been five years in the making. And it comes after a bitterly fought primary season, Matt.
LAUER: And he has a right to celebrate. But even as he basks in the glow of securing the nomination, Donald Trump, who hosted a closed-door fundraiser for Romney in Las Vegas last night, has managed to once again grab some headlines by reigniting the debate over President Obama's birthplace. Should Romney have been quicker to distance himself from Trump? We'll be talking about that in just a couple of minutes.
7:02AM ET SEGMENT:
LAUER: We begin on a Wednesday morning with presidential politics and Mitt Romney now with enough delegates to become the Republican presidential nominee. NBC's Peter Alexander has the latest on this. Peter, good morning.
PETER ALEXANDER: Matt, good morning to you. With the Republican nomination all sewn up, Mitt Romney now heads into what is a crucial 90-day stretch ahead of the Republican convention, nearly neck and neck with the President. This week he launched a new series of attacks trying to court those much-needed independent voters, targeting President Obama for wasting taxpayer money. But on the very day he clinched the nomination, that message was largely "Trumped."
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Not Letting Go; Trump Presses Birther Issue at Romney Fundraiser]
With the Republican nomination now secure, Mitt Romney is betting the road to the White House goes through the Las Vegas strip.
MITT ROMNEY: It's entirely possible that late in the evening of November 6th, the nation is going to be wondering what's going to happen in Nevada.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You can do it!
ROMNEY: There, exactly.
ALEXANDER: But it's another gamble that's literally "Trumped" his message, overshadowing the campaign. Romney headlined a multimillion dollar private fundraiser Tuesday night alongside his outspoken advocate Donald Trump. Trump, who famously shoots from the lip, did it again Tuesday in the wild west.
DONALD TRUMP: I don't consider myself birther or not birther. But there are some major questions here.
ALEXANDER: Single-handedly renewing questions about where the President was born, whether he's a U.S. citizen. A claim that was discredited more than a year ago when President Obama released his Hawaii birth certificate, due in part to pressure from Trump himself. Trump tweeted: "@BarackObama is practically begging @MittRomney to disavow the place of birth movement, he is afraid of it and for good reason." And later, sparred on CNN.
TRUMP: There are many people that don't agree with that birth certificate. They don't think it's authentic, Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER: I don't know when you say many people who don't agree-
TRUMP: Many people.
BLITZER: Like who? Give me a name of somebody in a position of authority in Hawaii says
TRUMP: There are many people that believe-
BLITZER: Give me a name.
TRUMP: There are many people. I don't give names.
ALEXANDER: The Obama campaign lashed out with this web video, attacking Romney for failing to shoot down extreme voices in his party, like John McCain did four years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He's an Arab.
JOHN MCCAIN: No, ma'am. No, ma'am. He's a – he's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with.
ALEXANDER: On a day the Romney campaign wanted to celebrate in Las Vegas, instead it was dealing with a Trump side show, insisting in a statement, "Governor Romney has said repeatedly that he believes President Obama was born in the United States." Late Tuesday at the Trump event, even Newt Gingrich rallied behind Romney.
NEWT GINGRICH: Governor Romney is not distracted. The Republican Party is not distracted. We believe that this is an American-born job-killing president.
ALEXANDER: And the Romney campaign also released Mitt Romney's birth certificate late Tuesday, after a reporter's request, and yes, it shows that he, too, was born in the United States. But ironically, at the end of the day this Trump-fueled birth certificate battle ended up as a reminder that Romney's own father George Romney, who was born in Mexico, actually had his own birther controversy when he ran for president 44 years ago. Matt.
LAUER: Alright, Peter Alexander on this story. Peter, thank you very much.
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Comments
The media (including
Submitted by tobiasdog on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:11pm.
The media (including conservative media) has been doing the public a great disservice on this issue, if just one or two major outlets would give an un-biased review of ALL the circumstantial evidence and let the people be the jury I would be willing to bet that the anti-birthers would be the ones who look foolish.
No Matt
Submitted by fivestring_assassin on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:12pm.
Obama should have be quicker distancing himself from the racist "Rev" Wright
What a joke
Submitted by John21 on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:13pm.
What a joke this is.
They create the non-story line out of very thin air and cover it like it was important and then use their propaganda story to claim it over shadows Romney’s win in Texas.
Seems like they are just doing what they always do provide the administration distraction. I think the Obama Public Relations firm of NBC is under the impression that they have some credibility left. They quit being a news organization 4 or 5 years ago at first they just provided there propaganda services to the DNC and they went with the highest bidder in the Obama administration. Why are they such a joke?
“Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” George Washington
Oh looky! It's our Shiny
Submitted by kareling on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:14pm.
Oh looky! It's our Shiny Object of the Week! This newest distraction brought to you by the Obama Campaign and the MSM (but I repeat myself).
Um, bill Maher?
Submitted by MrSnuggles on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:16pm.
Um, bill Maher?
going for a twofer
Submitted by MidAmerica on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:17pm.
It isn't just raining on Romney's parade that is motivating them but they also want to diminish Trump as a spokesman for Romney. They are attempting to Palinize and neutralize Trump because he is forceful and commands respect. I hope the Trump people recognize what they want to do to him and he hits them back hard.
Trump vs Lauer .what a fight!
No wait... Trump won't hit a girl
NBC chooses to be the news rather than report it.
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:22pm.
Isn't it interesting that they choose to ignore the largest religious freedom law suit against the government in history, and instead carry this???
Since the long-form Birth Certificate posted on-line by the WH is so perfect and exhibits perfect orthogonal registration and all which makes it likely a computer generated file, not a scanned image...
Question for NBC: Is a person born in 1961 in Hawaii of a 17 year-old mother who is a US citizen and a 22 year-old man who is a citizen of Kenya on a visa to study here a "Natural born citizen" of the United States? Or, is that baby a British citizen due to his father's British passport? Or is that Baby a dual citizen of both the US and Brittan? Now what if that person happened to be born under the exact same circumstances, except it was in May of 1959?
I wonder if NBC would actually remember how to do journalism instead of activism if they tried?
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Who
Submitted by grammajane on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 1:35pm.
has the authority to legally check out the statement written in that Harvard Newspaper about him being born in Kenya?? Is this the duty of the Supreme Court or is it just something that will not be checked out even tho it is a law for a president to be born in the US? This is a serious question if anyone can help me understand..........
Any State or Federal court has the authority
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 4:40pm.
However, all of them have punted on it when presented with the opportunity. Including the US Supreme Court which has now declined to hear two separate cases on it.
It's not a law, but spelled out in the Constitution in Article2, Section 1:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
The sole SCOTUS case that I am aware of that dealt with being a "natural born citizen" did so only as an ancillary topic and was back in the early 1900s. It seems to have implied that to qualify as a "natural born citizen" requires a person to be born within the jurisdiction of the United States and for both parents to have been citizens at the time of the birth. If that is indeed the standard, then by his own admission and the data on his highly touted birth certificate, Barrack Obama does not qualify.
It just would be nice for this issue to be looked at completely and conscientiously and resolved one way or another. There was a hearing held in Arizona in 2008 about John McCain meeting the natural born citizen requirement brought by a democrat. The contention was that since he was born in Panama, he did not meet the Constitutional requirement. The court ruled that since he was born to parents who were both citizens, and on a military base, which is by definition within the jurisdiction of the United States, he did indeed meet the requirements.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Not exactly, c5then...
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 6:04pm.
The sole SCOTUS case that I am aware of that dealt with being a "natural born citizen" did so only as an ancillary topic and was back in the early 1900s. It seems to have implied that to qualify as a "natural born citizen" requires a person to be born within the jurisdiction of the United States and for both parents to have been citizens at the time of the birth. If that is indeed the standard, then by his own admission and the data on his highly touted birth certificate, Barrack Obama does not qualify.
That is not the standard. There is no such requirement--even by implication.
The Happersett opinion merely noted in dicta that there was no doubt a child born in the US to parents who both were US citizens at the time of birth was a "natural born citizen". However, the Court did not exclude other possible circumstances conferring natural born citizenship and made no ruling in that regard. The issue was not before the Court.
Jer
I have always wondered what
Submitted by tobiasdog on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 2:54pm.
I have always wondered what it would look like if a so called conspiracy theory turned out to be true.
And here it is-the whole gov. and media complex working in a perfect storm of cover up and deflection! It is blatantly obvious that at the VERY LEAST Obama and company have presented him as born in Kenya back in the days before he was running for high office, and I am supposed to be embarrassed for having the critical thinking skills to make note of it.
I am not naive enough to think that anything of substance will ever come of this but people on the right should not back off this issue because it points to the dishonesty at the core of this blatant liar we have in the White House.
And the network media...
Submitted by almostacowboy on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 4:35pm.
along with AP and Reuter's will make sure that his association with Trump gets more play than his winning the nomination.
Having been schooled by George Will this past Sunday,
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 6:10pm.
with your permission, I shall henceforth refer to the oddly-coiffed blond billionaire Trump as the "bloviating ignoramus".
Jer