The steadfast media support for the Democratic Party infects every element of their alleged "news" coverage. Tuesday’s MSNBC Live with Craig Melvin provided yet another example of this as the anchor brought on MSNBC contributor (and recent AM Joy fill-in host) Tiffany Cross, who wasted no time ripping into the media for not doing enough to support Democrats:
I think just like the media, the presidential nominee is going to have to learn to focus on more than one thing. The challenge is, because the president has a big bull horn, there are times in the media when he gets unfair attention. Joe Biden is doing a digital conversation with the people. The media needs to give them both fair air time. We don't want to make the same mistake we did in 2016 by constantly chasing the shiny object, constantly chasing sweets and asinine remarks while real people are looking to a failing government to address these issues.
It is certainly true that the media give President Trump a lot of attention, but mostly because they love to bash him and blame him for every bad thing that happens in the country. For example, Cross did that in the very next exchange, when she bashed Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Trump as “liars” and accused the President of trying to kill millions of Americans:
First, I think we have to speak truth to the people who are watching right now and the people suffering from this. Kayleigh McEnany is a liar and lies for a bigger liar. Donald Trump has tried to Jim Jones the entire country by telling them to shoot bleach like they are taking a shot. This is dangerous.
Finally, Cross could not hide her disdain for Trump supporters, slamming them as “alleged pro-life” voters who did not care about people dying from coronavirus:
There are people out here who I imagine say that if the MAGA crowd doesn't want to wear their mask, who cares? If they want to get sick, it's fine. We don't have borders in our political party. They are responsible for everybody. We have to be responsible for our neighbors. As long as they make this a political argument and not one that saves lives from the alleged pro-life community, we'll see this level of fallout.
The elitist media view of Trump and his supporters is disgusting. The idea that they need to help Biden and ignore Trump is laughable given their daily activism on the part of Democrats and the far-left. It’s no wonder that the public’s trust of the press has plummeted.
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Read the full transcript below to learn more.
MSNBC’s Live with Craig Melvin
July 7, 2020
11:17 a.m. EasternCRAIG MELVIN: Former Vice President Joe Biden finally got to cast a vote for himself in the Democratic primary race. Today is election day in his home state of Delaware along with New Jersey. Of course, because of the pandemic he voted early last week. NBC's Mike Memoli is following the Biden campaign. Also with us is Tiffany Cross, Harvard resident fellow. By the way, she has a new book out. It's called "Say it louder! Black voters, white narratives and saving our democracy." I imagine this is not how the former vice president expected to cast a ballot for himself in this nominating contest. Let's talk about a strategy right now. It seems to be shifting. How is he going to focus his strategy in the midst of this pandemic moving forward?
MIKE MEMOLI: Craig, I would say the Biden campaign is really operating on two separate but related tracks at this point. On the one hand we've gotten used to these weekly public events he's doing really to hammer the president over his handling of the coronavirus, really the number one issue certainly on voters' minds. You heard him last week in Delaware talking about the fact that the president has surrendered in the face of the coronavirus. We also, of course, see him continuing to talk at a high level, the very message he began with at the beginning of this campaign which is The idea of the battle for the soul of the nation, playing on the contrast with what the Biden campaign says is a dark message from the president over the fourth of July weekend, I want to play a short clip of the last time I had a chance to be with the former Vice President on Election Day in his home state of Delaware. Let's take a look.
MEMOLI: Craig, that, of course, was eight years ago. The assumption was that he was going to potentially run in 2016. Now he's on the ballot in 2020. You mentioned him taking advantage of the absentee voting option. This is a message from himself, wanting to make sure supporters know about the myriad of voting options available to them through the fall, especially vote by mail and voting absentee.
MELVIN: My takeaway also, Mike Memoli, is you're aging quite well, my friend. Thank you, Michael. Tiffany Cross, what do you make so far of the former vice president's focus on the pandemic response? Is there more that he should be doing right now?
TIFFANY CROSS: He's in a challenging position, I will say, as we all are as we navigate the coronavirus landscape in this post-term America. I think just like the media, the presidential nominee is going to have to learn to focus on more than one thing. Obviously covid-19 has devastated every part of our lives. That warrants attention. It's also highlighted inequality that has long existed. As we're in the middle of this racial reckoning, we have to focus on that as well. You want to talk to the base of voters that resurrected your campaign. We have to focus on foreign election interference and safeguards for our election process. The challenge is, because the president has a big bull horn, there are times in the media when he gets unfair attention. Joe Biden is doing a digital conversation with the people. The media needs to give them both fair air time. It's going to be challenging. We have to hold ourselves to account. We don't want to make the same mistake we did in 2016 by constantly changing the shiny object, constantly chasing sweets and asinine remarks while real people are looking to a failing government to address these issues.
MELVIN: Collectively, we are easily distracted, aren't we? President Trump now suggesting we should perhaps learn to live with this coronavirus, that the majority of cases are harmless, 99% is what he said over the weekend. This is what the White House press secretary said about that comment. This is what she said in a briefing on Monday. Take a listen.It should be pointed out. That's actually not what the president said. But what do you make of this change in messaging, Tiffany?
CROSS: First, I think we have to speak truth to the people who are watching right now and the people suffering from this. Kayleigh Mcenany is a liar and lies for a bigger liar. Donald Trump has tried to Jim Jones the entire country by telling them to shoot bleach like they are taking a shot. This is dangerous. It doesn't just impact communities of color. It impacts his own base. As long as he's -- there's confusion, there is no centralized focus on this pandemic. You have different responses in Florida, in Texas. We had the ag commissioner on when I was hosting "Am joy." She talked about the same democratic legislators who asked governors to sign a mandate making masks mandatory. We haven't seen that. All Donald Trump has to do is say hey, wear your mask. He can put "Make America great again" on them for all we can. It's not just there are the pro mask and the anti mask people. No, there are people trying to save lives. There are people out here who I imagine say that if the MAGA crowd doesn't want to wear their mask, who cares? If they want to get sick, it's fine. We don't have borders in our political party. They are responsible for everybody. We have to be responsible for our neighbors. As long as they make this a political argument and not one that saves lives from the alleged pro-life community, we'll see this level of fallout. There has to be a centralized response at the federal level to bring the virus down. As long as there's not, I'm afraid we're in a free fall like Dr. Fauci suggested.
MELVIN: Over the weekend the president made a number of references to this push to remove confederate statues and monuments. He tweeted about it on Monday, tweeted about sports teams changing their names. NASCAR banning the confederate flag. It would seem as if the president is intent on leaning into these culture wars again, just four months out from the election. Is that a strategy that's going to work?
CROSS: Yes, I think with his base it will. This is something I write about extensively in my book, Craig, what happened in 2016. Unfortunately, the power of voters and the power of the media are hand in hand at this point. So unfortunately what we saw after 2016 when many in the media got it wrong and Trump won, their takeaway was incorrect when they said, whoa, trump won, our problem was we weren't paying enough attention to these trump voters, we weren't listening to their voices. What a slap in the face that was for the communities of color, saying we need to give the racists more attention. At least we're saying we have to call a thing a thing. He's stoking a race war. It's irresponsible to not call it out and address these inaccuracies and correct this revisionist history we see him perpetuating.
