On Thursday, NBC’s Today comforted the comfortable in President Biden as they gushed over his “historic” speech aimed at explaining why he dropped out of the 2024 race (which, in actuality, he failed to do) and concluded with an ice cream social for administration officials and reporters alike.
A few minutes after co-host Craig Melvin teased “[r]eaction pouring into President Biden’s historic address to the nation”, the network did nothing to include an array of reactions aside from the First Family and former President Trump.
Co-host Savannah Guthrie set the table by describing the remarks “as an attempt to define his legacy while passing the torch to a new generation of leaders” and gave way to chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander touting Wednesday night as “the beginning of...an extended farewell”.
“The President speaking about uniting the country by putting what’s best for democracy over his desire for a second term, while underscoring the urgency of this moment and the stakes of the election this fall. The great thing about America, he said, is that here, kings and dictators do rule, the people do. History, he said, is in your hands,” he added.
Alexander continued playing stenographer and even said there was a post-speech gathering with the President and his staff featuring “fittingly for this President...ice cream, a Biden favorite” (click “expand”):
In a historic Oval Office address, President Biden detailing the most consequential decision of his lengthy political career.
(....)
Watching from inside the Oval Office, the President’s family appearing to comfort him afterwards. The First Lady later sharing this handwritten note on social media, thanking “those who never wavered” and encouraging her husband’s supporters to now “put that trust” in Harris. The Vice President in Houston this morning to deliver a speech to the nation’s largest teacher’s union. On Wednesday in Indianapolis, she vowed to fight for reproductive rights.
(....)
And back to last night’s address, the President spoke about decency and respect, asking Americans, does character in public life still matter? And after his speech, a celebratory scene in the Rose Garden here, where hundreds of White House staffers greeted the President with cheers. Aides telling me it was both joyful and bittersweet, and perhaps Savannah, fittingly for this President, the White House served everyone ice cream, a Biden favorite.
As for Trump, correspondent Garrett Haake said Trump held “nothing back, attacking his White House successor” at a North Carolina rally and “jok[ed] about shedding the more unifying tone he attempted to strike at last week’s Republican National Convention”.
Haake added Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), is facing “backlash” for past comments about respecting those who have children more than those who don’t.
Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker had a whopper of her own, citing possible running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris — Governors Roy Cooper and Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly — as “moderate[s]... who could offset that charge from former President Trump that she is too extreme.”
Wednesday’s network special report on the speech was arguably even more out of control. Guthrie was in awe of Biden “framing...in the starkest imaginable terms” that “democracy is on the line” while Welker had this doocy that claimed “this was a speech for the history books” and which clips and words will be “played and replayed throughout time”
She also sung Biden’s praises for the “stunning” call to “talk about personal ambition and to acknowledge that he clearly wrestled with this decision”.
In turn, she insisted, this was “the first draft of how his legacy is remembered” as he invoked “past presidents who he reveres, from Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt”:
NBC’s Kristen Welker, moments after Biden’s speech wrapped:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 25, 2024
“[T]his was a speech for the history books, just as when LBJ announced he wasn't going to run for re-election in 1968. And we have seen those clips played and replayed throughout time. This is the type of speech that… pic.twitter.com/4l88Dy4wgT
Chief Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson also celebrated Biden’s speech being about “this idea of character” and possessing “fortitude to lead the country forward”. She also laughably claimed “it was not a campaign speech” since “[h]e clearly had his eye on the history books”.
Alexander was also there and complained Biden might not be able to accomplish much else because of “recalcitrant...Senate Republicans” then gushed over the Biden regime having a pizza party for staffers (click “expand”):
I will telling you pulling back the curtain a bit tonight, I am told on the second floor of the White House residence, what's called the state floor, that hundreds of White House staffers and members of the Vice President's staff as well have gathered together tonight. They were watching on big screens with pizza brought in. The military band playing as well, described to me as a joyful gathering, but also a bittersweet one, where they were sharing hugs and memories. The first opportunity for many of these staffers to gather together face-to-face since the President made this formal announcement. A couple things I’m struck by and this was, in many ways, a farewell speech for the president. But it’s only the first of several to come. He will speak again on this issue more broadly with the DNC, the Democratic National Convention, to take place in Chicago....And, of course, he will deliver another more formal farewell address in the closing days of his time in office. And what is striking, though, even as the focus tonight is on President Biden, the focus quickly turns to the Vice President and who she may select as her vice president as well.
“And the President ending his speech with a personal note, saying he hopes the American people know how grateful he is. He talked about being a kid with a stutter from Scranton, Pennsylvania, who reached the heights of political office here in this country, and only in America, he says, would that be possible,” Guthrie concluded as e NBC’s coverage wrapped.
To see the relevant transcripts, click here (for July 24’s Special Report) and here (for the July 25 Today).
