There is perhaps no moment in Donald Trump’s presidency in which the media unnecessarily melted down more than in their coverage of President Trump’s Fourth of July “Salute to America” celebration. The event itself was a tribute to America’s military and the country’s history. It featured flyovers from all five branches of the military.
Joe Scarborough, occasionally, has a moment of clarity when it comes to the media’s hatred for President Trump. On a Thursday edition of Morning Joe, he said that referring to the event as reminiscent of “Tiananmen Square” and calling Trump a dictator is exactly what the President wants them to do. Normally the most outspoken of Trump critics in the media, the MSNBC host warned fellow journalists not to take the President’s “bait” (click “expand”):
SCARBOROUGH [LAUGHING]: Listen to the people clapping. I'm sorry. This is just -- I've been talking a good bit about ground noise and the signal. Everything that was said about that Fourth of July event, everything about that Fourth of July event, ground noise. And now he's going to bring it back next year and his critics will be shocked and stunned and deeply saddened and we’ll talk about it for another three days and it will mean absolutely nothing.
(....)
WILLIE GEIST: …But he gets his opponents to go so far in the other direction, that he likes the fight. He gets people to actually say that this is like Tiananmen Square because he had a couple of tanks behind him making his speech. That’s ridiculous, it’s preposterous and he’s happy to bait him into doing that.
SCARBOROUGH: A couple of old tanks. And, Willie, it gets people actually on his side saying, “Oh, so you hate people who wave the flag?” You know what, if he wants to have his little events, let him have his little events and don’t— of course, he's bankrupting the city as you and Alex point out -- but again, he's putting critics in a position where they are criticizing the flag and Blue Angels and just don't go for the bait every time.
With his Fourth of July event, President Trump, as MRC’s Brent Bozell and Tim Graham noted, "succeeded in creating another full-blown media panic about democracy eroding, and civilian control of the military collapsing, all because the president is behaving like a dictator.” Even when it comes to non-partisan patriotic displays that honored the birth of our nation on the National Mall, liberals in the media simply could not put away their hate-field hyperbole.
Scarborough may be an anti-Trump MSNBC shill, but he is smart enough to understand that the unhinged nature of the media is not helping their perception among the American people.
The full transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC's Morning Joe
07/11/2019
7:27 a.m. Eastern
DONALD TRUMP: I will say this: It was a wonderful day for all Americans and based on its tremendous success we're just making the decision and I think we can say we have made the decision to do it again next year and maybe we can say for the foreseeable future. [Crowd applause]
JOE SCARBOROUGH: *Laughing*
MIKA BRZEZISNKI: He's just a nut.
SCARBOROUGH: *Laughing* Listen to the people clapping. I'm sorry. This is just -- I've been talking a good bit about ground noise and the signal. Everything that was said about that Fourth of July event, everything about that Fourth of July event, ground noise. And now he's going to bring it back next year and his critics will be shocked and stunned and deeply saddened and we’ll talk about it for another three days and it will mean absolutely nothing.
BRZEZINSKI: But we'll cover other stories as well--
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I think it's probably a little more important covering actually foreign policy--
BRZEZINSKI: Cover the Alex Acosta story --
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, exactly. Instead of old tanks on the mall.
BRZEZINSKI: Mueller’s testimony, children at the border, the Russia probe.
SCARBOROUGH: I just thought people clapping. Willie, I love the people clapping in the audience. That Donald Trump is announcing, “Hey, we're going to have that horrible event again where I talk about George Washington seizing the airports.” Who is in the audience applauding, going “woot woot”? I mean who loved that event other than Donald Trump?
WILLIE GEIST: Maybe people in the room who thought their jobs were on the line, perhaps, but--
BRZEZINSKI: They loved it. Loved it
GEIST: Joe, you make a good point though. This is another fight that Donald Trump likes to have. Because he has this event -- by the way, there were ton of people there, the Blue Angels were there, everybody can get behind that part of it. But, yes as Alex points out, he may have bankrupt a fund in the city. We'll talk about that in a minute. But he gets his opponents to go so far in the other direction, that he likes the fight. He gets people to actually say that this is like Tiananmen Square because he had a couple of tanks behind him making his speech. That’s ridiculous, it’s preposterous and he’s happy to bait him into doing that.
SCARBOROUGH: A couple of old tanks. And, Willie, it gets people actually on his side saying, “Oh, so you hate people who wave the flag?” You know what, if he wants to have his little events, let him have his little events and don’t— of course, he's bankrupting the city as you and Alex point out -- but again, he's putting critics in a position where they are criticizing the flag and Blue Angels and just don't go for the bait every time.
