MSNBC host Brian Williams thought he’d try to emulate his 11pm competitor, Trevor Noah, over at The Daily Show on Thursday, by mocking Donald Trump and Republican House leader, Kevin McCarthy with a fake "news" clip.
Maybe he was trying to impress one of his guests, Baratunde Thurston, who formerly was a producer for Noah’s comedy show.
Feigning seriousness, the MSNBC journalist introduced what was supposed to be a video clip of McCarthy’s meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago:
We are all about to see something for the first time. We have what I'm told is the first video, exclusive video out of this meeting today between McCarthy and Trump. We will watch it and react on the other side.
Instead, the network played the memorably cheesy “You complete me” scene from the film, Jerry Maguire:
Afterwards, the journalist deadpanned, “That is obviously, we have rolled the wrong clip. And we were, we were sold a bill of goods here. I thought this was going to be of the McCarthy and Trump meeting and someone is going to of course, be in big trouble.”
He added this crass quip about McCarthy: “You have the leader of the Republicans in the House, going down to kiss the ring and God knows what else, meeting with a deposed former president in his under-decorated Florida home. Is that because this is the only game they have?”
His grinning guests loved it. “Brian, I'm still recovering from the video clip. Thank you, and I’m mad at you right now for having me break so much on television,” Thurston praised.
Well, Williams’ satirical joke earned him applause from liberals on Twitter as well. As of Friday morning, Williams was trending at the #2 spot on Twitter. SNL comedian Leslie Jones tweeted, “Brian pettiness is sooo magnificent!” while MSNBC contributor Melissa Murray similarly praised, “Brian Williams, change your name to Petty Labelle!”
In case there was any question whether Williams was in on the joke, before playing a clip from Tucker Carlson he warned his guest, “Bill Kristol, this next clip is sadly real.”
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