On Thursday, disappointed MSNBC reporters struggled to find anyone who had watched President Biden’s address to Congress. The correspondents, looking for voter reactions in Georgia and Florida, admitted that most people they talked to didn’t see the speech and that some “just went to bed” Wednesday night rather than tune in for the political theater.
“I’ve got to tell you, most of the folks that I’ve spoken to here did not actually watch Joe Biden’s address last night,” correspondent Priscilla Thompson revealed while reporting from Atlanta, Georgia during the left-wing cable channel’s 10:00 a.m. ET hour. She added: “I’ve spoken to around a dozen folks and only two of them watched and listened to what he had to say last night.”
Anchor Hallie Jackson then turned to correspondent Ellison Barber, reporting from Coral Gables, Florida: “So Ellison, you know we love to talk about sort of the voice, the perspective of voters here on this show....you’re hearing what people there are thinking of the President’s speech. What’s up?”
Well, it turns out voters there didn’t think much of the speech – because they hadn’t watched it either. Barber explained:
Yeah, we’re seeing some of what Priscilla touched on there, about two-thirds of the people who we have tried to talk to here said they did not watch the President’s address. Not necessarily because they were boycotting it or intentionally not watching it, they just went to bed. They had to work, they had other things. This wasn’t top of their to-do list.
It’s not really a surprise that the intrepid reporters had so much trouble finding people who saw the speech, early ratings data indicates only around 11.6 million Americans took time to watch as Biden laid out his plans to waste trillions of taxpayers dollars and massively expand the size of government. That’s a massive plummet in viewership compared to past presidential addresses to Congress.
Just hours earlier on MSNBC, Morning Joe touted viewer snap polls supposedly showing “overwhelming support from a majority of Americans” for Biden’s radical agenda. If the ratings numbers are accurate, less than 4% of the U.S. population actually saw the speech.
MSNBC’s search for missing Biden speech watchers was brought to viewers by Progressive and AT&T.
Here is a transcript of the April 29 coverage:
10:08 AM ET
(...)
PRISCILLA THOMPSON [REPORTING FROM ATLANTA, GA]: And so we expect that the President is, of course, going to talk about what he considers his biggest achievements in the past 100 days, likely to mention that $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. But this visit also comes on the heels of those new proposals that you all have been talking about, expanding educational – access to educational opportunities, the possibility of greater job creation. And, you know, he laid that out in his address last night, but I’ve got to tell you, most of the folks that I’ve spoken to here did not actually watch Joe Biden’s address last night. I’ve spoken to around a dozen folks and only two of them watched and listened to what he had to say last night. So it’ll be interesting to see how he lays out those points, which points he really reiterates here in Georgia, when speaking directly to the voters here. Hallie?
HALLIE JACKSON: Priscilla, thank you. So Ellison, you know we love to talk about sort of the voice, the perspective of voters here on this show. You are in Coral Gables, Florida, and you’re hearing what people there are thinking of the President’s speech. What’s up?
ELLISON BARBER: Yeah, we’re seeing some of what Priscilla touched on there, about two-thirds of the people who we have tried to talk to here said they did not watch the President’s address. Not necessarily because they were boycotting it or intentionally not watching it, they just went to bed. They had to work, they had other things. This wasn’t top of their to-do list. Though many said they plan to catch up on it some time today.
(...)
