While most of the major broadcast network anchors and panelists were pleasantly surprised by President Trump’s Tuesday night speech to Congress, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw uncorked some long-winded complaints about the address that he claimed will have fact-checkers “very busy for the next 24 hours.”
“He also appealed across the aisle for the first time to work on things. You've seen a lot of administrations. There’s always a learning curve here. Watching that different tone. Did you see a President now who recognizes that the governing part has begun, you can only go so far with the executive orders,” current NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt wondered.
Brokaw admitted that “we’ve been waiting for the pivot since August” and while “this is easily the most presidential he’s been,” the liberal journalists quipped about the fact-checkers having a tough job to do.
Specifically, Brokaw touted the leftist claim that droves of Americans are in love with ObamaCare and Trump’s plans are only fueling “a lot of those protests” across the country. On illegal immigration, Brokaw griped:
He talked about crime among immigrants. There's a lot of other crime in American that doesn’t immigrants that doesn't involve immigrants, including shooting crimes. You know, we have had mass murders that don't involve immigrants, don't involve Islamic terrorists as well. No one is condemning gun violence in the country, only when it involves an immigrant of some kind. So, he's saying I want to be inclusive but he singles them out.
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Later, Holt quipped for former Bush administration official Nicolle Wallace as Brokaw giggled that Trump may sully this momentum and good will:
Nicole, you said right after the speech you thought this was the political speech of his short political career, Donald Trump tonight. But we have seen time and time again where he can step on his own good news very quickly with one tweet.
While correspondent Hallie Jackson touted concerns about paying for Trump’s proposals and Andrea Mitchell chided Trump for suggesting the Yemen raid was successful seeing as how someone died, the mood was positive across ABC, CBS, and NBC.
Over on CBS, one moment worth noting in the criticism category was this from CBS’s Face the Nation host John Dickerson:
And this was-- but this was an America First speech in a nicer package. There was not the burned out vision of America that you described accurately, Scott, from that inaugural address....If you look — let's just take immigration, for an example. There was talk today of potentially bipartisan agreement coming out of the White House. And then you saw in the speech him highlighting the victims of crimes that had been committed by immigrants. Democrats will see that and they will say that is an attempt to make immigrants into kind of a violent group to be feared of, to be afraid of. And they will not see that as an extension of an olive branch as a precursor to a bipartisan agreement on immigration reform.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from NBC’s post-speech coverage on February 28:
NBC’s Presidential Speech
February 28, 2017
10:12 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: And Tom Brokaw, he also appealed across the aisle for the first time to work on things. You've seen a lot of administrations. There's always a learning curve here. Watching that different tone. Did you see a President now who recognizes that the governing part has begun, you can only go so far with the executive orders?
TOM BROKAW: Well, we've been waiting for the pivot since August, remember? We’re going to pivot to being presidential. Tonight this is easily the most presidential he's been. Fact checkers are going to be very busy for the next 24 hours or so, taking a look at some of the claims he made. For example, the 20 million people with the — on ObamaCare are pretty happy with the health care that they're getting right now. They don’t want to eliminate that that's the focus of a lot of those protests. He talked about crime among immigrants. There's a lot of other crime in American that doesn’t immigrants that doesn't involve immigrants, including shooting crimes. You know, we have had mass murders that don't involve immigrants, don't involve Islamic terrorists as well. No one is condemning gun violence in the country, only when it involves an immigrant of some kind. So, he's saying I want to be inclusive but he singles them out. Then when he talks about immigrants taking jobs away from Americans, the fact is, I've been out in those states. They're taking jobs that Americans don't want to do anymore, in food processing plants, dairy farms in northern Wisconsin, construction jobs and — carriers. It doesn't mean we don't have to solve the immigrant problem, we really do. We have to take control of our nation, but at the same time, we can do it and still be accurate about it, it seems to me.
(....)
HOLT: Nicole, you said right after the speech you thought this was the political speech of his short political career, Donald Trump tonight. But we have seen time and time again where he can step on his own good news very quickly with one tweet. [BROKAW GIGGLES]
(....)
MITCHELL: The President said General Mattis assured him there were large amounts of critical intelligence, those were the words. And that is not the reporting. That's not what Senator McCain has said. And the fact that White House press secretary Sean Spicer described it as a success, and that this was described as a success tonight, is a bit jarring, because what the military people have been telling us, what intelligence officials and also what the senators have been saying on Armed Services in both parties, it's not a success when you lose a Navy SEAL, when you have so many children who were killed as well and so many other civilians, and of course they lost a very valuable piece of equipment.
(....)
JACKSON: I just got a text message from a Democratic senator who, unsurprisingly, was disturbed by the lack of detail, as this person put it, but also wondered something that I think some Republicans in Congress are wondering as well, as Savannah is talking about reaction, which is how are we paying for this when it comes to the policies he's putting forward, not just health care but infrastructure when he talked about as well.
