Clearly MSNBC host Katy Tur is not accustomed to anyone fighting back against her left-wing partisan sniping. During a contentious interview Wednesday afternoon, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh embarrassed the “news” anchor by repeatedly calling out her cable channel as a propaganda arm of the Biden campaign.
The exchange began with Tur whining about President Trump criticizing his Democratic opponent’s record during a Rose Garden press conference on Tuesday: “The President responded to Joe Biden’s economic and climate plan yesterday by having an event in the Rose Garden. Are we going to see more of that, where a Rose Garden event is disguised as a campaign event, since the President is not able to hold those big rallies?”
Murtaugh immediately destroyed the fantasy that the leftist media were anything but the Democratic Party’s spin machine:
I think we’ve seen the outrage expressed by the media over the President’s remarks yesterday. But let’s talk about what’s actually going on. The media and Democrats and Joe Biden, they don’t like it when the President tweets, they don’t want him to be holding rallies, they don’t want him to communicate with Americans. They don’t want him to speak at Mount Rushmore, of all places. And now, they don’t want him to hold press conferences. You know, Joe Biden will read a speech from a Teleprompter a couple of times a week and spend every word attacking President Trump, and the President is one who likes to fight back. And he’s going to take his opportunities where he can get them.
Clearly caught off guard by someone tearing down her facade of being a journalist, Tur interrupted: “[Trump] spoke for 63 minutes and took a handful of questions at the end....and started talking about a variety of different subjects, a lot of it just was not correct. Are you saying that that wasn’t a campaign event?”
Murtaugh didn’t miss a beat as he rattled off facts that Democrats in the press don’t want people to know:
...there’s not one reporter who covers this President who could possibly say they don’t have access to him and the ability to ask him questions. Joe Biden went 89 days between holding press conferences, and in that time, the President took questions from groups of reporters 55 times during the space of that 89 days. This is the most accessible president that any reporter has ever had access to....by the way, the questions that the President took were far more than the zero questions that Joe Biden took yesterday. Joe Biden gave a speech and outlined the complete upending of our entire economic system with his $2 trillion Green New Deal package and he took zero questions, and wasn’t even asked to defend it.
Later in the segment, Tur desperately tried to change the subject: “You talk about how you want to make sure that attendees for the President’s rallies are safe. In Tulsa, the campaign was seen taking away social distancing signs from the rafters. You also didn’t require masks...”
However, the Trump campaign spokesman wasn’t having it:
...we did take extraordinary steps to protect the people who came to the rally in Tulsa. We gave every single attendee, everyone who entered had to pass a temperature check. We gave every attendee a mask, we provided more hand sanitizer than any large group of people could possibly ever – ever possibly use.
And there was no such organized effort to protect the safety of people who were engaged in these massive protests in city after city. No organized efforts at safety whatsoever. And I do not recall MSNBC or CNN or anybody else being concerned about the safety of people who attended those gatherings. But suddenly when it is involving a President Trump rally, then of course – then these safety measures are paramount. But when it’s a large gathering with a political message that MSNBC would agree with, suddenly safety measures are really on the back burner.
At that point, Tur claimed they were out of time, but then proceeded to lecture her guest:
We will note the President is the only one having indoor rallies or events of that scale in the entire country. Again, the protests were outdoors, all of the doctors and health experts say that that is a safer place to hold them. I attended a number of those rallies, everybody was wearing a mask, hand sanitizer was handed out.
When the segment actually ended several seconds later, Murtaugh sarcastically mocked her blatant activism: “I appreciate that speech, Katy, thank you.”
Tur wasn’t the only person whose skin Murtaugh got under, her co-host Chuck Todd actually spewed this absurd lie moments after the interview: “And just a reminder, for what it’s worth, there is no editorial point of view here on any of these newscasts on MSNBC in the daytime.”
Exactly how stupid do these left-wing hacks think people are? Back in March, the Meet the Press host and staunch Democrat similarly declared with a straight face that he had “no point of view” on politics.
This failed attempt by Tur and Todd to campaign for Joe Biden was brought to viewers by Publisher’s Clearing House and Procter & Gamble. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a transcript of the July 16 segment:
2:46 PM ET
KATY TUR: And joining us now for more on all of this is communications director for the Trump 2020 campaign, Tim Murtaugh. Tim, always good to see you. Thanks for joining us.
TIM MURTAUGH: Sure.
TUR: The President responded to Joe Biden’s economic and climate plan yesterday by having an event in the Rose Garden. Are we going to see more of that, where a Rose Garden event is disguised as a campaign event, since the President is not able to hold those big rallies?
MURTAUGH: Well, I mean, I think we’ve seen the outrage expressed by the media over the President’s remarks yesterday. But let’s talk about what’s actually going on. The media and Democrats and Joe Biden, they don’t like it when the President tweets, they don’t want him to be holding rallies, they don’t want him to communicate with Americans. They don’t want him to speak at Mount Rushmore, of all places. And now, they don’t want him to hold press conferences. You know, Joe Biden will read a speech from a Teleprompter a couple of times a week and spend every word attacking President Trump, and the President is one who likes to fight back. And he’s going to take his opportunities where he can get them.
TUR: He spoke for 63 minutes and took a handful of questions at the end. Are you really –
MURTAUGH: Yesterday he laid out a very effective case.
TUR: Tim, I’m sorry, he spoke for 50 – for over 60 minutes and only took a handful of questions at the end. It was a speech that was supposed to be about Hong Kong. He touched on Hong Kong for a moment, and then went off and started talking about a variety of different subjects, a lot of it just was not correct. Are you saying that that wasn’t a campaign event?
MURTAUGH: I’m saying that the President is one who’s going to fight back. I think if you’re going to – there’s not one reporter who covers this President who could possibly say they don’t have access to him and the ability to ask him questions. Joe Biden went 89 days between holding press conferences, and in that time, the President took questions from groups of reporters 55 times during the space of that 89 days.
This is the most accessible president that any reporter has ever had access to, so to hold up yesterday – and which, by the way, the questions that the President took were far more than the zero questions that Joe Biden took yesterday. Joe Biden gave a speech and outlined the complete upending of our entire economic system with his $2 trillion Green New Deal package and he took zero questions, and wasn’t even asked to defend it. So it’s a clear contrast.
The President faces the media routinely at the White House, on his way to Marine One, at the steps of Air Force One, and in regularly scheduled press conferences. He is extremely accessible to reporters. And I think if you talk to your reporters who cover Joe Biden, I’ll bet you they would privately tell you they are frustrated with being completely unable to ask Joe Biden a single question.
(...)
2:50 PM
TUR: You talk about how you want to make sure that attendees for the President’s rallies are safe. In Tulsa, the campaign was seen taking away social distancing signs from the rafters. You also didn’t require masks, although you did hand them out. The governor of Oklahoma has now contracted COVID-19, he was not a wearing a mask. Herman Cain was there at the Tulsa rally, not wearing a mask, he’s contracted COVID-19. You’re not necessarily going to require masks at your potentially outdoor event in Jacksonville. I’m confused at how you are protecting those who are coming to your events but then acting against all of the public health guidelines, including from your own – this administration, on how to do that.
MURTAUGH: That’s actually a completely inaccurate assertion. First, the governor – our rally in Tulsa was 25 days ago. And so, to associate the governor’s positive test today with something that occurred 25 days ago is really – it’s not fair to connect those two events. And secondly, we did take extraordinary steps to protect the people who came to the rally in Tulsa. We gave every single attendee, everyone who entered had to pass a temperature check. We gave every attendee a mask, we provided more hand sanitizer than any large group of people could possibly ever – ever possibly use.
And there was no such organized effort to protect the safety of people who were engaged in these massive protests in city after city. No organized efforts at safety whatsoever. And I do not recall MSNBC or CNN or anybody else being concerned about the safety of people who attended those gatherings. But suddenly when it is involving a President Trump rally, then of course – then these safety measures are paramount. But when it’s a large gathering with a political message that MSNBC would agree with, suddenly safety measures are really on the back burner.
TUR: Tim Murtaugh, that’s all the time we have. Thank you so much for joining us. We will note the President is the only one having indoor rallies or events of that scale in the entire country. Again, the protests were outdoors, all of the doctors and health experts say that that is a safer place to hold them. I attended a number of those rallies, everybody was wearing a mask, hand sanitizer was handed out.
MURTAUGH [CROSS-TALK]: So then by that statement then, I would take it that you were all a-okay with the New Hampshire rally that we were planning?
TUR [CROSS-TALK]: And we just saw the images of those rallies, people were not wearing masks inside the President’s rally, there was not social distancing being practiced. We saw the signs being removed from seats.
MURTAUGH [CROSS-TALK]: Would you then praise the New Hampshire rally because it was in an open-door airplane hangar?
TUR [CROSS-TALK]: So you can say you handed out hand sanitizer and gave out masks. They weren’t wearing them. And also, Dr. Fauci today has said that the incubation period for this disease could be longer than just two weeks. So Tim Murtaugh, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate all of your time.
MURTAUGH: I appreciate that speech, Katy, thank you.
CHUCK TODD: We will have the brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal, will be unveiled today at 5:00 p.m. on Meet the Press Daily. And just a reminder, for what it’s worth, there is no editorial point of view here on any of these newscasts on MSNBC in the daytime. But at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, we will have that, those more up to date numbers. And we’ll be right back.
