Friday saw unexpectedly great jobs numbers that caused the unemployment rate to go down. It also saw President Trump give a news conference where he said George Floyd would be proud of what is going on across the country. These two things led many in the media, including MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, to take Trump out of context and accuse him of saying that Floyd would be proud of Friday's job report.
Despite the better than expected jobs numbers, Kristen Welker, reporting from the streets of D.C., contended that Trump still needs to do better, "That is going to be one of the key questions that President Trump is going to have to answer as well, what is he going to do about black unemployment, which continues to be one of the issues that plagues the African-American community."
Back in studio, Mitchell teed up for former RNC Chairman Michael Steele a clip of Trump talking about George Floyd, "the president did mention George Floyd almost in passing while discussing the economy and saying the great economic numbers is something that George Floyd could be looking down from heaven and enjoying."
The clip of Trump that Mitchell showed had Trump saying, "Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that's happening for our country. It's a great day for him. It's a great day for everybody. It's a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day."
The full context of that quote is:
Equal justice under the law must mean that every American receives equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement, regardless of race, color, gender or creed, they have to receive fair treatment from law enforcement. They have to receive it. We all saw what happened last week. We can’t let that happen. Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, 'This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.' This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality. It’s really what our constitution requires and it’s what our country is all about.
In other words, Trump was saying Floyd would be proud of the protests, not the jobs report.
After playing the out of context clip, Mitchell sardonically told Steele, "that seemed to me a little tone-deaf."
Steele agreed and went further, "It's not only tone-deaf, it's borderline blasphemous in light of what happened to Mr. Floyd." He further alleged that the deceptively edited clip, "speaks to just how out of step this man is with real life. This reality television presidency is inconsistent, incompatible with democracy, it’s incompatible with governing, it's incompatible with everyday people try to realize the American dream."
Friday's show wasn't Mitchell's first experience is taking Republicans wildly out of context.
Here is a transcript for the June 5 show:
MSNBC
Andrea Mitchell Reports
12:06 PM ET
KRISTEN WELKER: That is going to be one of the key questions that President Trump is going to have to answer as well, what is he going to do about black unemployment, which continues to be one of the issues that plagues the African-American community, Andrea. So. a number of pressing questions as President Trump is set to depart for Maine today. Will he take questions from reporters? That remains unknown at this hour, Andrea.
ANDREA MITCHELL: And Michael Steele, the president did mention George Floyd almost in passing while discussing the economy and saying the great economic numbers is something that George Floyd could be looking down from heaven and enjoying. I wanted to play that sound from the president, if we've got that ready, Michael.BEGIN CLIP
DONALD TRUMP: Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that's happening for our country. It's a great day for him. It's a great day for everybody. It's a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day.END CLIP
MITCHELL: Michael Steele, that seemed to me a little tone-deaf.
MICHAEL STEELE: It's not only tone-deaf, it's borderline blasphemous in light of what happened to Mr. Floyd. I doubt George Floyd is in heaven look down going “oh, gee, great jobs report.” Are you kidding me it speaks to just how out of step this man is with real life. This reality television presidency is inconsistent, incompatible with democracy, it’s incompatible with governing, it's incompatible with everyday people try to realize the American dream. And that came to a shattering halt on May 25th when police abused the privileges and the rights and the freedom of Mr. Floyd by killing him. So we have to account for that as Americans. And that's what this process has been about. Yeah, it's nice 2.5 million people got their jobs back but it does not take away from the underlying reality and truth that a man in the course of all of this was killed by the government. Because the police represent the government, right? As they protect and serve us, and the reality of it is as president, is we saw what you did this week when you cleared Lafayette Park. We saw what you did when you put up fencing to keep the people symbolically from accessing their government. And how you used religion against us, perpetrating a fraud by holding up the Bible as if that's part of your belief system, not to question your belief system, but you expose it every time you do things like that. Now to sit here and go, well, George is looking down and is happy, are you kidding me? I think, Andrea, we as Americans have to contextualized things in our own way and recognize the president and the rest of us aren't on the same page. And that's just one more example of that.
