Another day, another dose of hilarious hypocrisy from serial liar Brian Williams. On his MSNBC show The 11th Hour late Thursday, Williams decried President Trump “liv[ing] largely through the world of television” and holding an “unhinged” press conference “brought to you by narcissism, thin-skinned chaos, and deeply personal grievances.”
Right off the top, Williams declared with his typical bravado: “For one hour and 17 minutes earlier today, our country went through one of those ‘are you watching this’ moments. It started as an announcement of Donald Trump's new Labor Secretary nominee and then it morphed quickly into press conference and them some.”
Williams left aside the fact that he himself relished appearances on scripted shows (like this one), repeatedly slow-jammed the news, and was even rumored to wanting a late-night show when he complained:
It became clear today that while his job changed recently, the President lives largely through the world of television. It’s how he sees the world and he sees a lot of it. Today, he critiqued his least favorite news hour in primetime and endorsed his favorite morning program on cable.
The MSNBC anchor conceded that Trump’s presser “went over big in Trump country,” but juxtaposed his millions of voters with his opponents as the ones that were “serious and reasonable” in believing Trump was “unhinged, fixated on his press coverage and legitimacy.”
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“Trump’s critics, those who worried about this President and this White House, saw a live special television event brought to you by narcissism, thin-skinned, chaos, and deeply personal grievances,” Williams added.
Williams eventually welcomed on his panel and served up this slobbering endorsement of failed McCain campaign manager-turned-MSNBC analyst Steve Schmidt: “I’ve come to know you as a patriot and an institutionalist and constitutionalist. What do you think we're looking at, what do you think we're in for and by the war, how did it go over in America where you are tonight?”
Sure, being a classy “patriot” includes referring to Mark Levin as cancerous to the Republican Party. Anyway, Schmidt didn’t break down in tears this time, but he nonetheless fretted that “[w]e’ve just never seen any behavior like that from an American president Democrat or Republican...embrace this mantle of victimhood quite like Donald Trump.”
Fully embracing the apocalyptic, 1984-like comparisons, Schmidt stated:
In this relativism with regard to truth that red can be blue and up can be down and down can be up, the constancy of the lying is pernicious in a democracy and is something that, I think, people of good faith in this country — Republicans and Democrats and increasingly Republican leaders have going to have to stand up against and say this is not normal. This is not healthy. This is not right in a democratic republic that all of us are steward of and have an obligation to hand in tact to our children and our grandchildren.
“Not low marginal taxes rates, not a, you know, conservative government or a liberal government but a functional constitutional republic as has been handed to us with great sacrifice,” Schmidt concluded as his fellow liberal panelists nodded.
Later, Schmidt channeled Jimmy Carter, declaring that there’s “an enormous crisis of competence in this White House” because “[w]e’ve never seen anything like it.” He further ruled: “Every day, more and more dishonest statements from podiums from the North Lawn — just total chaos in the administration and it’s dangerous.”
MSNBC terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance was also on hand, re-upping his warning to not antagonize the intelligence community and compared Trump administration to Benedict Arnold:
Yes, absolutely and I think we’re going from this general mayhem that we see inside the White House to a national security crisis as this investigation unfold. We may, in fact, be going quickly to a constitutional crisis if these allegations start playing about — about constant contact with Russian intelligence, we may be heading to Benedict Arnold in this White House.
Williams interjected as he cut to break with an attempt at humor: “We always like to send folks to be with a nice thought in their heads.”
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams on February 16:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
February 16, 2017
11:01 p.m. Eastern
BRIAN WILLIAMS: For one hour and 17 minutes earlier today, our country went through one of those ‘are you watching this’ moments. It started as an announcement of Donald Trump's new Labor Secretary nominee and then it morphed quickly into press conference and them some. It became clear today that while his job changed recently, the President lives largely through the world of television. It’s how he sees the world and he sees a lot of it. Today, he critiqued his least favorite news hour in primetime and endorsed his favorite morning program on cable. It went over big in Trump country — did — not so in the rest of the country where some serious and reasonable people called him unhinged, fixated on his press coverage and legitimacy. Trump’s critics, those who worried about this President and this White House, saw a live special television event brought to you by narcissism, thin-skinned, chaos, and deeply personal grievances. While it is difficult to choose high points and low points without simply reairing it, we will do our best over the next hour, beginning with the preponderance of news from the event. The President on Russia and firing of Mike Flynn.
(....)
WILLIAMS: Mr. Schmidt, I’m going to begin with you tonight. You tweeted the following earlier today: “NO American President has EVER comported themselves like this. Endless self pity , Dishonest assertions and scapegoating .” Steve, I’ve come to know you as a patriot and an institutionalist and constitutionalist. What do you think we're looking at, what do you think we're in for and by the war, how did it go over in America where you are tonight?
STEVE SCHMIDT: Well, it was an extraordinary performance in that regard. We’ve just never seen any behavior like that from an American president Democrat or Republican, the constant references to the election victory, going after his opponent, Hillary Clinton, the self-pitying, the attacks on the media, you never seen an American president, the commander in chief, the head of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, embrace this mantle of victimhood quite like Donald Trump. But as disturbing as this performance is to me, maybe to some of the other panelist, to foreign leaders, to senior members of the intelligence communities, the armed forces, internationally. In the country, I don't think Donald Trump was now talking to people in the room, he was talking to his voters. Now, he has no plan or strategy that's clear to expand that voter base, to grow it, but he is intent, I think, on keeping it. Keeping it intact and that voter base tonight I suspect saw the Donald Trump that they — that they voted for. But regardless of whether they like it or not, there's some bigger issues at stake and chief among them is this notion that if the leader says it's true, it must be true. In this relativism with regard to truth that red can be blue and up can be down and down can be up, the constancy of the lying is pernicious in a democracy and is something that, I think, people of good faith in this country — Republicans and Democrats and increasingly Republican leaders have going to have to stand up against and say this is not normal. This is not healthy. This is not right in a democratic republic that all of us are steward of and have an obligation to hand in tact to our children and our grandchildren. Not low marginal taxes rates, not a, you know, conservative government or a liberal government but a functional constitutional republic as has been handed to us with great sacrifice.
(....)
SCHMIDT: Look, we have an enormous crisis of competence in this white house. We’ve never seen anything like it. We’re three weeks into this. We’ve lost National Security Adviser for lying to the Vice President. The Vice President went out, gave misinformation on television. The White House knew that National Security Adviser was lying. No one informs the Vice President. The chaos set off by the unconstitutional order, the counselor to the President is under an ethics investigations making up fake massacres. Every day, more and more dishonest statements from podiums from the North Lawn — just total chaos in the administration and it’s dangerous.
WILLIAMS: Um, Malcolm, 30 seconds. Are we looking at trouble — real trouble — in the foreseeable future?
MALCOLM NANCE: Yes, absolutely and I think we’re going from this general mayhem that we see inside the White House to a national security crisis as this investigation unfold. We may, in fact, be going quickly to a constitutional crisis if these allegations start playing about — about constant contact with Russian intelligence, we may be heading to Benedict Arnold in this White House.
WILLIAMS: We always like to send folks to be with a nice thought in their heads.
