During MSNBC’s 11:00 a.m. ET hour impeachment trial coverage on Friday, correspondent Kasie Hunt engaged in some mind reading as she proclaimed that “we all know” Republican senators “are horrified by what the President is doing.” The comment came as she and anchor Chris Matthews hailed Democratic House manager Adam Schiff for being at his “absolute best.”
“There are so many Republicans in this building who, we all know, are horrified by what the President is doing,” Hunt asserted as they discussed Schiff’s Thursday presentation. She then assured viewers: “That is not my opinion. That is simply what we hear as reporters on Capitol Hill, day in and day out, in a private setting.”
Hunt seemed frustrated that “what happens privately is completely different from what has been happening publicly” and praised Schiff:
And I think the fact that those two realities are so hard to reconcile is really the truth that Schiff was getting at. He was saying in public, “We know what you guys are saying behind closed doors, behind your hands, when you’re actually, you know, expressing your true feelings about whether or not Donald Trump should be President of the United States or whether you approve of the way that he conducts himself. Compared to what you are saying when the cameras are turned on.”
Matthews led off the exchange by insisting: “I thought that Adam Schiff did his absolute best, I think as a citizen, as a politician. You don’t often see somebody going the distance and doing their absolute personal best at something. I got the feeling we saw that from him last night...”
Hunt replied: “Chris, what struck me the most about the way that Adam Schiff pitched that argument is that he hit on the underlying reality here of how Republicans have come to embrace this president and what they’re doing now compared to how they’ve spoken about him for so long, for so many years of his presidency, during his campaign for president.”
The claims of Republican “horror” over Trump echoed a Wednesday night tirade from MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, who asserted that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham represented the “face of terror” in the GOP when it comes to supporting the President during impeachment.
Democrats and the liberal media seem to think personal displeasure or frustration that some Republicans might have toward Trump at times somehow proves the President must be removed from office. That’s kind of argument people rely on when facts and evidence have failed to prove an actual impeachable offense.
Here is a transcript of the January 24 discussion:
11:01 AM ET
(...)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I thought that Adam Schiff did his absolute best, I think as a citizen, as a politician. You don’t often see somebody going the distance and doing their absolute personal best at something. I got the feeling we saw that from him last night, whether it will work or not. Especially the challenge he put to the Republican members of the Senate, “Do you want this man to stay in office the final months of his presidency or is it too dangerous to let him do that?” That was his stretching argument, projecting it into the future. How’s that going to sell on the Senate floor?
KASIE HUNT: Chris, what struck me the most about the way that Adam Schiff pitched that argument is that he hit on the underlying reality here of how Republicans have come to embrace this president and what they’re doing now compared to how they’ve spoken about him for so long, for so many years of his presidency, during his campaign for president.
There are so many Republicans in this building who, we all know, are horrified by what the President is doing. That is not my opinion. That is simply what we hear as reporters on Capitol Hill, day in and day out, in a private setting. But what happens privately is completely different from what has been happening publicly.
And I think the fact that those two realities are so hard to reconcile is really the truth that Schiff was getting at. He was saying in public, “We know what you guys are saying behind closed doors, behind your hands, when you’re actually, you know, expressing your true feelings about whether or not Donald Trump should be President of the United States or whether you approve of the way that he conducts himself. Compared to what you are saying when the cameras are turned on.”
And I think that, that reality is one that we have discussed over and over again here, and on the air, and it’s one that still remains true to this day.
(...)
