MSNBC's self-proclaimed non-partisan, Biden-supporting historian Jon Meacham reacted to the news that Biden has been declared president-elect by claiming that our long national nightmare is over and that the voters have kept the republic. Talk about your partisan hack pretending to be a historian.
Meacham claimed that Biden's win was a victory for hope and for democracy itself, "Because the deficit of decency, the deficit of hope, the ascendance of fear, the ascendance of selfishness that we have seen in this country will not totally end with any single election, but a single election can surely help. And what was on the ballot here was decency and democracy and empathy and Joe Biden is particularly well-equipped for this moment."
Like CNN's Jake Tapper, he cited former President Gerald Ford, but also Benjamin Franklin:
And I think it's wonderfully poetic that it was Pennsylvania that has ended what President Ford in another context call our long national nightmare, because it was in Philadelphia. That as Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention in that fabled story, an important woman in Philadelphia said, “what will it be, Mr. Franklin? Have you given us a republic or a monarchy?” and he said, “a republic, madam, if you can keep it.” The republic is being kept today.
Meacham was not the only MSNBC personality to see Biden's victory as poetic. Al Sharpton declared:
And if there's anyone that can heal this country it is someone that has been through the pain, has had to grow because we fought over the crime bill 30 years ago, and he's grown. And I think you have the poetry of him winning in his home state from Scranton, Pennsylvania, but you also have had the poetry of here was a man who was the vice president to the first black man who was president that is now bringing in the first black woman to be vice president. He is the bridge to bring this country together because he has served the black and now has a black woman that will serve with him. And this is the kind of healing we want.
He would also add, "That's the kind of man we need to bring this country together. We're not always going to always agree but we've got to trust the one that convenes us and I think he's earned our trust because he understands pain."
Mike Barnicle reacted by claiming that President Trump is the reason for the country's bitter political divide and that Biden is the man to fix it:
We've been talking an awful lot over the past 3 1/2 years and certainly over the past weeks about living in a divided nation, and there's no getting around it. We are a divided country. But there's a cause for this, there's a reason for this, and one of the biggest reasons is that every single day, every single hour of nearly every single day for the last 3 1/2 years we have been led by a president we has gone out of his way to create division in this country. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens when you have Joseph R. Biden assume the presidency, a man directly opposite to the nature, the personality and the moral code of the incumbent president of the United States
This segment was sponsored by Vicks.
Here is a transcript for the November 7 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC 2020 Election Coverage
11:50 AM ET
JON MEACHAM: Joe Biden is among the most empathetic men I've ever ment, much less public figure. In that he's in the tradition of George Herbert Walker Bush. They both have the capacity to put themselves in the other person’s shoes. That is personal virtue. It's also going to be a political virtue that will benefit this country for at least four years to come and possibly far beyond. Because the deficit of decency, the deficit of hope, the ascendance of fear, the ascendance of selfishness that we have seen in this country will not totally end with any single election, but a single election can surely help. And what was on the ballot here was decency and democracy and empathy and Joe Biden is particularly well-equipped for this moment. He's not perfect. He'd be the last person on the planet to tell you he was perfect. There are vices, but there are virtues here. And they are deeply human virtues. They are deeply American virtues. And I think it's wonderfully poetic that it was Pennsylvania that has ended what President Ford in another context call our long national nightmare, because it was in Philadelphia. That as Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention in that fabled story, an important woman in Philadelphia said, “what will it be, Mr. Franklin? Have you given us a republic or a monarchy?” and he said, “a republic, madam, if you can keep it.” The republic is being kept today.
…
11:57
AL SHARPTON: And if there's anyone that can heal this country it is someone that has been through the pain, has had to grow because we fought over the crime bill 30 years ago, and he's grown. And I think you have the poetry of him winning in his home state from Scranton, Pennsylvania, but you also have had the poetry of here was a man who was the vice president to the first black man who was president that is now bringing in the first black woman to be vice president. He is the bridge to bring this country together because he has served the black and now has a black woman that will serve with him. And this is the kind of healing we want. I was in the room, Joe and Mika, when and I think this is important. I was there when he met with George Floyd's family, the day before the funeral in Houston. And only Joe Biden could show the empathy and compassion and took George Floyd's young daughter to the side and talked to her one-on-one like she was the head of state. And she said to him, you know, my dad would have changed the world and he quoted that everywhere. That's the kind of man we need to bring this country together. We're not always going to always agree but we've got to trust the one that convenes us and I think he's earned our trust because he understands pain.
…
12:01
MIKE BARNICLE: We've been talking an awful lot over the past 3 1/2 years and certainly over the past weeks about living in a divided nation, and there's no getting around it. We are a divided country. But there's a cause for this, there's a reason for this, and one of the biggest reasons is that every single day, every single hour of nearly every single day for the last 3 1/2 years we have been led by a president we has gone out of his way to create division in this country. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens when you have Joseph R. Biden assume the presidency, a man directly opposite to the nature, the personality and the moral code of the incumbent president of the United States. And if there’s just one clip I wish we could show it would be the clip of Joe Biden sitting vice president speaking with members of it Parkland High School family that lost their husband, I believe it was an assistant coach. They have a special needs child, and the sitting vice president goes down the family line clearly moved thanking them. He turns to leave and the son, the special needs son off camera shouts, wait, and runs to Joe Biden, buries himself in the sitting vice president's chest, he was my dad. And watch the vice president's reaction, surprised, unplanned, instinctively human. Watch what he says. He hugs the young man and says we're going to be all right, you're going to be all right. That one clip contains the promise of the next four years.
