NBC Frets GOP Is ‘Seizing on’ Trump Assassination Attempt, Demands New ‘Tone’

Curtis Houck
July 14th, 2024 12:47 AM

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Giving credit where credit is due, NBC (and simulcast on MSNBC) wasn’t anywhere near the dumpster fire on Saturday night that CBS was in covering the assassination attempt against former President Trump that left at least one Trump rally attendee dead and others injured. That said, there were still a few humdingers, such as pathetic use of the GOP drinking game/bingo word “seizing” and more perverted speculation.

Nearly 90 minutes after NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt frustratingly urged viewers to not assign motives to the shooter, he interviewed Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA), who presents the area in which the shooting took place, and demanded the GOP be the ones to watch their words.

Kelly wasn’t having any of it:

Trump campaign correspondent Garrett Haake was part of NBC’s rolling coverage in his return from paternity leave and, minutes after Holt’s exchange with Kelly, fretted Trump supporters “are using images” of a bloodied Trump to “seiz[e] on this moment to elevate him politically.”

“The political reverberations, of course, entirely predictable at this moment…I will add, as I mentioned earlier, that concerns about the former President's safety on the campaign trail have always been on the – on the front burner at the senior level of the Trump campaign,” Haake added.

Before sending NBC viewers on the East Coast to local news, Holt and deranged MSNBC contributor Frank Figliuzzi engaged in some gross speculation about possible retaliation by Trump supporters.

Holt asked Figliuzzi if he’s worried about more attacks, giving the latter room to run rampant by concocting some twisted future in which Trump supporters murder anti-Trump protesters outside the upcoming Republican National Convention:

To see the relevant transcript from July 13, click “expand.”

NBC News Special Report
July 13, 2024
9:25 p.m. Eastern

LESTER HOLT: Do you – do you think that we will hear a – a different tone for the rest of this campaign coming from frankly both sides?

CONGRESSMAN MIKE KELLY (R-PA): I – you know what – I would sure hope so. But you know, I think you've covered this before – in 2017, our Republican baseball team was practicing for a spring baseball game at a charity event, and our – our leader now, Steve Scalise, was, again – a gunman attacked our guys while at practice and shooting – shooting up the place.

HOLT: Yeah, I reported that.

KELLY: I don’t – listen, I don't understand this thing – I really don’t understand. the greatest nation in the world right now has succumbed to being a third world country. The level of hate, the level -- the level of discourse that takes place has got to stop. It has got to stop, and we have to return to who we are, we are a great nation, we say in our prayers under God, under God, under God, well I'm sure right now people are like tomorrow Sunday morning, please, please, go to wherever it is you worship, drop to your knees tonight and pray for America, pray for President Trump that he's going to be okay. We also have the – as I said, one man was shot and this, they insist they are celebrating the day, then, all of a sudden, somebody takes their hands – they think to shoot up the crowd and shoot the president in the head. It's absolutely – it’s off the charts, third world country now. We have to start rallying about who we are when one and a half million men and women in uniform have died to give us the right to practice a form of government to have read for us to be so casual and so callous about it? No, no, no, no. It’s time for America to get back to being America.

(….)

9:30 p.m. Eastern

GARRETT HAAKE: His supporters, though, are using images like the ones we’re seeing on the screen including now both his sons pinning those images to their X accounts – the website formally known as Twitter – pointing out the idea their father, Republican nominee in waiting, if you will, is a fighter and kind of seizing on this moment to elevate him politically. And so, we have the update from the President, again, he claims he was shot through the upper part of his right ear. By all accounts he will be just fine. The political reverberations, of course, entirely predictable at this moment, but already going on behind the scenes, the Trump campaign as we reported earlier in the evening putting their staffers on lockdown telling people not to talk to the press, not talk at all while they figure out the steps. At a senior level, going forward, I will add as I mentioned earlier that concerns about the former President's safety on the campaign trail have always been on the – on the front burner at the senior level of the Trump campaign.

(….)

10:56 p.m. Eastern

HOLT: Are you fearful – or does law enforcement look at the possibility that something like this could inspire others who may have harbored similar thoughts?

FRANK FIGLIUZZI: Oh, absolutely. The copycat thing here – look, sadly, we have seen it the last couple of years with people kind of taking on FBI buildings and it doesn't end well for them like Cincinnati, Ohio or a man who tried to swing a weapon at FBI agents in Provo, Utah who were arresting him. This kind of thing begets more violence and revenge. So, if you’re going to have protest areas in Milwaukee with presumably people who are anti-Trump. Can you imagine people who think, in their head, the answer is to seek revenge for today's event, maybe against those who are protesting against Trump? This presents quite the challenge for next week.

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