On MSNBC following President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address, hosts and pundits expressed grave concern at a speech that was “dark” and “militant” with anti-Semitic overtones with the use of the phrase “America First.”
Co-host Rachel Maddow seemed emotional, speaking softly about how “it was militant and it was dark, the crime, the gangs, the drugs, this American carnage, disrepair, decay” and a speech Barack Obama couldn’t have given.
Maddow moved to how “America First” frightened her as a harkening back to the World War II era rife with anti-Semitism:
The new President also repeating that our guiding principle will be America first, America first. We know how he has used that as a campaign slogan, that does also have very dark echoes in American history. There was an America First Committee that formed in this country, hundreds of thousands of people in this country, some of the richest businessmen in the country who were part of it, they were formed to keep us out of World War II. They were infiltrated by the Nazis, many of them are anti-Semitic, part of why they weren't alarmed by Hitler's rise in Germany.
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She added that the phrase “is something that means a specific thing in this country” and “to repurpose it now, not that far down the historical path” was “hard to hear.”
Hardball host Chris Matthews actually praised Trump for emphasizing the forgotten men and women of the Rust Belt, but also had some gripes:
Of course, nothing about human rights, nothing about gender rights and other things you'd hear from a Democrat but I thought it was a strong statement to the people who voted for him. I was looking all the people in the cat hats — in the Make America Great hats out there. They wanted to hear this. He said I'm going to be the guy I said I was going to be. You dance with the one that brung ‘em.
Former Bush administration official Nicolle Wallace fell much more along the lines of what Maddow felt, fretting how “it was unnecessarily dark” because it “felt like a bit of an overreaction” to the past three Inaugural address (Bush in 2005, Obama in 2009, and Obama in 2013).
However, the MSNBC liberal that was almost as startled as Maddow as NBC News historian Michael Beschloss. As if none of Obama’s speeches were partisan, the best-selling author complained that Trump wasn’t conciliatory enough for his liking.
“Well, usually you hear an inaugural address an effort to bring the nation together as much as possible and I think that is not the road that Donald Trump took today. If you heard this and you didn't know the occasion for it, I think one might think that this was actually a party convention speech or a campaign speech, not an inaugural address,” Beschloss argued.
Dubbing the speech as “dark” and “fierce,” Beschloss chided the billionaire for offering “very few olive branches thrown to people who are skeptical of him and might be open-minded to support someday Donald Trump as President, or to the other side, people who voted against him and who will never support him.”
“But in the tradition of the inaugural addresses that are intended to heal the country after a bruising campaign, and maybe even expand the Pres — new President's political base and appeal among the American people, hard for me to see how it does that,” he concluded.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s 2017 Presidential Inauguration coverage:
MSNBC’s 2017 Presidential Inauguration
January 20, 2017
12:18 p.m. EasternBRIAN WILLIAMS: A short speech, under 20 minutes, a raised, clenched fist at the end, chants of “God Bless America.” A speech that, in the early 1960s, gave us, “ask not.” Today, gave us “American carnage,” talk of a sad depletion of the U.S. military, of crimes, of gangs, and drugs, wealth, strength and confidence dissipated, factories closed down, and now dotting the landscape as tombstones. Donald Trump called for a total allegiance to the United States told Americans God would protect them.
(....)
RACHEL MADDOW: You know, it’s interesting, I have heard that same sentiment that you just described from the very top reaches of the outgoing administration, that oratory is powerful and can be a form of leadership but it's not the work of governing and that counting on inspiration is — doesn't get you — doesn’t get where you need to be. This was a workman-like speech. It was short and he went through it quickly, and it was militant and it was dark, the crime, the gangs, the drugs, this American carnage, disrepair, decay. You can't imagine the outgoing President giving a speech like that. This President also repeating — the new President also repeating that our guiding principle will be America first, America first. We know how he has used that as a campaign slogan, that does also have very dark echoes in American history. There was an America First Committee that formed in this country, hundreds of thousands of people in this country, some of the richest businessmen in the country who were part of it, they were formed to keep us out of World War II. They were infiltrated by the Nazis, many of them are anti-Semitic, part of why they weren't alarmed by Hitler's rise in Germany. The America First Committee is something that means a specific thing in this country, to repurpose it now, not that far down the historical path. It's hard. It's hard to hear.
WILLIAMS: Chris Matthews, you among us are the former speechwriter.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I thought it was the work of a speechwriter, Brian. I didn't think it was the work of the candidate, a president. It was workman-like because it was really, somebody went through and studied everything he said in the campaign and consolidated it into a coherent argument for American economic nationalism. I thought the strength was in the rusted factories, the talk what drove the success of his campaign, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, the sense of too many, too many places like you know, Indiana city and places like Michigan city which are just old factories rusted. I thought that just was a great image. It was economic, not much, interesting, very little about immigration, except in the context of jobs. None of that ethnic stuff we got about rapists and all that stuff about Mexican-Americans and others from Latin America. That was gone. I thought that was interesting. Of course, nothing about human rights, nothing about gender rights and other things you'd hear from a Democrat but I thought it was a strong statement to the people who voted for him. I was looking all the people in the cat hats — in the Make America Great hats out there. They wanted to hear this. He said I'm going to be the guy I said I was going to be. You dance with the one that brung ‘em.
(....)
NICOLLE WALLACE: You know, some of the same lines that Chris is talking about jumped out at me and having been out last week on the road talking to Trump voters who were Obama voters, it was this sentiment that the jobs left and the factories closed and while they celebrated the nations capitals, there was little to celebrate across the land. I thought that was the speech's strength. I thought the rest of it was unnecessarily dark. He is the leader of our country now and, you know, having worked on George W. Bush's 2005 inaugural address, who’s essential critique it was too soaring, too idealistic, this set out things that could never be achieved. This, to me, felt like a bit of an overreaction to that speech and the two Obama speeches, and you know, if we were looking to see how he would orient himself in these early days, he settled on a closing message that was about the forgotten man and woman, and much of our discussion in the closing days was about the Comey letter, and the Comey fallout, but his victory can be attributed as much to him settling on a closing message about the forgotten man and woman, and it's clear that he believes that that closing message gave him an animating purpose for his presidency, and that's what he spoke to today.
(....)
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Well, usually you hear an inaugural address an effort to bring the nation together as much as possible and I think that is not the road that Donald Trump took today. If you heard this and you didn't know the occasion for it, I think one might think that this was actually a party convention speech or a campaign speech, not an inaugural address. It was dark, it was fierce. There were very few olive branches thrown to people who are skeptical of him and might be open-minded to support someday Donald Trump as President, or to the other side, people who voted against him and who will never support him, and so I think as an expression of what he believes and what he feels emotionally about, it sure was that. But in the tradition of the inaugural addresses that are intended to heal the country after a bruising campaign, and maybe even expand the Pres — new President's political base and appeal among the American people, hard for me to see how it does that.
