On Friday, all three network morning shows invited on Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to promote a new song he produced with other celebrities to raise funds for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico. However, the conversation quickly turned political and nasty as the hosts of each broadcast highlighted Miranda’s Twitter attack on President Trump in which he claimed the commander-in-chief was “going straight to hell.”
“Speaking of the government response, you tweeted out something a few days after the storm that really got a lot of attention,” fill-in co-host Craig Melvin observed while talking to Miranda on NBC’s Today. The anchor helpfully recited the performer’s social media tirade for viewers: “...this is what you said, talking about the President of the United States, ‘You’re going straight to hell, Donald Trump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, ‘Right this way, sir.’ They’ll clear a path.’”
“Was that a tweet that you sent in the heat of the moment or do you still stand by that?,” Melvin asked. Miranda had no regrets:
I think that it’s unprecedented language from me, but I – it’s unprecedented to have the President of the United States attack the victims of a nature disaster. I’ve never seen that before. And so, those were the only words I had to express my feelings on that....They’re all I had available to me to express my reaction to his attack on the people of Puerto Rico.
On ABC’s Good Morning America, co-host George Stephanopoulos lobbed this softball to Miranda about his hostile smear of the President: “Talking about your Twitter feed....You’re full of hope right now. You were full of anger this weekend as well. Do you think things are changing now? Is the government stepping up?”
Miranda used the same line: “I’ve never seen a sitting president attack the victims of a natural disaster before. That is without precedent and that is why my words were without precedent.”
On CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King at least acknowledged Miranda’s comments were controversial: “Your passion is very clear and you created a little bit of controversy and people said, everybody is saying, ‘Did you see Lin-Manuel's tweet?’” After reading the tweet, King wondered: “So, you know, sometimes when we’re angry, we send tweets and then we hit send and we go, ‘Oh, wish I hadn’t sent that.’ Are you thinking that or are you thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m really glad that I said that’?”
Miranda continued to double down on his anti-Trump insults:
I wish I could tell you that was an impulsive tweet....I’ve never seen the President of the United States attack the victims of the natural disaster. That has no precedent for me. And so, those words coming out of me have no precedent.
Amazingly, none of the network anchors asked Miranda about an earlier tweet he sent out on September 26 in which he thanked the President for Puerto Rico relief efforts.
In addition, not a single reporter challenged Miranda’s false assertion that the President “attack[ed] the victims of the natural disaster” and “the people of Puerto Rico.” On CBS, King did briefly acknowledge: “You tweeted in response to President Trump criticizing the mayor of San Juan.” However, she never interrupted the liberal actor as he ranted about Trump attacking “victims.”
Trump criticizing a Democratic mayor for her response to the disaster after she criticized him is a far cry from attacking “the people of Puerto Rico.”
Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz has now become a liberal media darling as she has taken to routinely blasting the President, even while they have ignored her partisan left-wing views.
The biased interviews with Miranda on the network morning shows were brought to viewers by Jiffylube, Liberty Mutual, and JCPenny.
Here are excerpts of the October 6 coverage:
Today
8:35 ET AM(...)
CRAIG MELVIN: Speaking of the government response, you tweeted out something a few days after the storm that really got a lot of attention. I think we’ve got the tweet here, this is what you said, talking about the President of the United States, “You’re going straight to hell, Donald Trump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, ‘Right this way, sir.’ They’ll clear a path.” Was that a tweet that you sent in the heat of the moment or do you still stand by that?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Lin-Manuel Goes All In; Miranda on Puerto Rico, Trump & New Song]
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: Well, the only reason that made news is because most of the time my Twitter feed is full of dad jokes and videos of dogs and pictures of my son playing with trains. I really – I do my best to be the silver lining in the world because, you know, the world is how it is.
I think that it’s unprecedented language from me, but I – it’s unprecedented to have the President of the United States attack the victims of a nature disaster. I’ve never seen that before. And so, those were the only words I had to express my feelings on that. When have we ever seen that? So those were the – that was not an impulsive tweet, those were the only words I had left. And I’m guy who puts words together for a living. They’re all I had available to me to express my reaction to his attack on the people of Puerto Rico.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Those were words, now you have words and music and a song.
(...)
Good Morning America
8:13 ET AM(...)
LIN MANUEL MIRANDA: This is the worst storm that Puerto Rico has ever experienced in its modern history and I knew that name would forever have a different connotation on the island. And yet, I have a musical theater brain, that’s where my head goes when I hear the name “Maria.” And so I thought, is there anything I can flip from this? Just the way – you know, hip-hop, we flip a sample and we change the meaning. And the goal with this was to flip the meaning of this song to be about – to be about Puerto Rico and the title “Almost Like Praying” because thoughts and prayers are great but thoughts and prayers are not enough.
So we need more. We need action. We need the governmental to response to be equal to the response of the people which, you know, I have never had more hope in the American people and people all over the world than I have [now]. You know, go to my Twitter feed, it’s people breaking their piggy banks, it’s employers matching employee donations. You know, we are not the issue. If our government can step up to where the people are, we’ll be on the road to recovery a lot faster.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Talking about your Twitter feed –
[APPLAUSE]
Yeah, that’s for sure, right there. You’re full of hope right now. You were full of anger this weekend as well. Do you think things are changing now? Is the government stepping up?
MIRANDA: I don’t know. You know, the tweets I wrote this weekend made news because normally my Twitter feed is full of dad jokes and dog videos and pictures of my son playing with trains. And yet, I’ve never seen a sitting president attack the victims of a natural disaster before. That is without precedent and that is why my words were without precedent. And so, you know, I didn’t see the press conference in Puerto Rico. I was busy mixing and mastering the song. I waited to hear. Are we increasing aid? Are we increasing troops? Short of that, I don’t need to see another photo-op, I need action and I need people to help my island.
(...)
CBS This Morning
8:17 AM ET(...)
GAYLE KING: Your passion is very clear and you created a little bit of controversy and people said, everybody is saying, “Did you see Lin-Manuel's tweet? You said this. You tweeted in response to President Trump criticizing the mayor of San Juan. Quote, You're going straight to hell, @RealDonaldTrump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, “Right this way sir. They’ll clear a path.” So, you know, sometimes when we’re angry, we send tweets and then we hit send and we go, “Oh, wish I hadn’t sent that.” Are you thinking that or are you thinking, “Yeah, I’m really glad that I said that”?
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: I wish I could tell you that was an impulsive tweet. I — The only reason this made news is because normally my Twitter feed is full of dog videos and dad jokes and audio snippets of my son making up songs. I really try to be a bright light as much as possible on Twitter because I know the way world is and I know the way Twitter is, and I have sort of seen it as “Okay, I’ll be the silver lining department.” Stay informed, stay engaged. But I’ll be the silver lining department. Then again, I’ve never seen the President of the United States attack the victims of the natural disaster. That has no precedent for me. And so, those words coming out of me have no precedent.
(...)
