Nobody was expecting leftwing tv journalists to be anything short of bitter on the day Donald Trump assumed the office of the Presidency for the second time. But for anyone hoping to get a good chuckle out of the CNN and MSNBC panelists’ emotional reactions and tortured analysis, the coverage did not disappoint.
Panelists on both liberal cable networks scoffed at Trump’s inaugural speech, panning it as “dark” and reminiscent of his 2016 “American carnage” speech. CNN’s David Axelrod complained:
This was sort of an “American carnage” burger in a “golden era” bun. The front and the back had something uplifting; the middle of it was very familiar, sort of dystopian rhetoric — that he ran on, to be fair — that included his persona grievances and some false assertions.
Over at MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell was theatrically outraged at Trump’s choice of language: “The Inaugural Address has gone from the President saying, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,’ to, ‘Drill, baby, drill.’”
His co-panelist, Nicolle Wallace, read aloud a tweet from Katie Rogers of The New York Times: “As Trump disparages migrants and outlines his plans (there are not millions and millions of criminal migrants as he claims today), a largely white crowd is applauding in the Rotunda.”
Within five minutes of the ceremony ending, Dana Bash on CNN had already brought up January 6th:
Where he was giving that speech in the Capital Rotunda, four years ago, people, in his name, were desecrating that very building, that very area. Because they did not want him to leave office. They believed the lies he was telling, that he actually did win.
Buckle up for four years of very loud, sanctimonious whining.
