The initial reaction to President Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress at MSNBC centered around outrage at the fact that Trump would dare to honor D.J. Daniel, the 13-year-old pediatric cancer patient who was deputized as a honorary Secret Service agent. Their bilious reaction to that heartwarming moment is the truest indicator of how the night really went for them.
Here’s Rachel Maddow, blasting the D.J. moment in her opening analysis of the joint address:
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is bitter over the fact that President Trump put the spotlight on a pediatric cancer patient and fulfilled his wish. pic.twitter.com/waFzuKjRNp
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 5, 2025
RACHEL MADDOW: For the record, and this is disgusting, the president made a spectacle out of praising a young man who thus far survived pediatric cancer, as if the president had something to do with that. This was in the midst of him praising doge. The doge cuts, among other things, have cut off funding for ongoing research into pediatric cancer.
Watching Maddow’s brief but unhinged take can lead reasonable individuals to speculate as to the quantities of box wine and antidepressants circulating around the MSNBC studio. Otherwise, there is no making sense of Maddow’s determination that Trump ever claimed having anything to do with young D.J. 's survival. There is nothing in Trump’s remarks that would lead anyone to that conclusion.
It is likelier that Maddow was simply bitter at the heartwarming moment where D.J. was made an honorary member of the United States Secret Service, particularly his embrace with Secret Service Director Sean Curran.
Nicolle Wallace’s reaction was just as bilious, forcibly linking the D.J. moment to…January 6th.
GHOULISH: MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace ties the honoring of DJ at the Joint Address to January 6th. Truly unhinged. pic.twitter.com/v5SwQJOExN
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 5, 2025
NICOLLE WALLACE: But I think this was a lesson in finding one thing that- that you let yourself feel. And I let myself feel joy about D.J. And I hope he's alive for another, you know, 95 years. Right? And I hope he lives the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop. He knows what he wants to do. And maybe when you have childhood cancer, that crystallizes for you, and I hope he has a long life as- as a law enforcement officer, but I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump's supporters. And if he does, I hope he isn't one of the six who loses his life to suicide. And I hope he isn't one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then live to see Donald Trump pardon those people.
There is no floor for this collection of angry Karens at MSNBC. It is unfortunate that Wallace felt she needed to allow herself to “feel” the D.J. moment, only to then vomit the rest of her nonsense out. But it is a reflection of the extent to which the angry Karens at MSNBC have allowed politics to creep into everything.
Reasonable people looked at the D.J. moments- first, his Secret Service moment and then his high-fiving of the son of a fallen law enforcement officer who was accepted into West Point, and find joy. MSNBC can look at those same moments and reveal themselves as the bitter partisans they are.
