When it comes to the liberal media and President Trump, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.
MSNBC gave a classic example of the phenomenon this morning. In the days leading up to the Salute to America parade, the liberal media had savaged it, and in particular the prospect of tanks rolling down the streets of DC. But when the event actually unfolded, and instead of tanks rolling down the streets, armored vehicles were parked rather inconspicuously on display, that was no good, either.
To the contrary, in place of Morning Joe's first hour at 6 am Eastern, the MSNBC crew kvetched that the parade didn't live up to the ostentatious standards of North Korea or France! Co-host Cal Perry complained that the event wasn't the "massive parade" that had been touted. Never Trumper Tom Nichols said it wasn't "the big Bastille Day thing." And early morning co-host Yasmin Vossoughian added that it wasn't "what we've seen from the likes of Kim Jong-un in North Korea, either."
YASMIN VOSSOUGHIAN: You were pretty active on Twitter, Tom Nichols, yesterday to say the least. You were actually calling the speech Soviet-like yesterday.
TOM NICHOLS: Now and then.
VOSSOUGHIAN: Now and then. You were actually calling the speech Soviet-like yesterday. And it’s interesting because I was actually on the air with Colonel Jack [Jacobs] on Wednesday night, I believe, and he basically said we are a non-tank country. We don’t have to display our arms. We don't have to display our military, because we know the power of our military. Countries like Russia, countries like North Korea, that’s what they have to do. You on Twitter called it Soviet-like yesterday.
NICHOLS: Well, I spent a good part of my life studying the Soviet Union, and going there, and watching their rituals and their norms and manners. And when you, I mean, it was a flat, uninteresting speech, except the moment that made me cringe -- is when he turns to the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and says okay now, step up here with me, which is the personification of the military might of the United States in one military officer and one civilian. And I thought it was really inappropriate. I thought it was just wrong and it looked, kind of, you know, top-of-the-reviewing-stand wrong for me.
CAL PERRY: It was also sold very strangely. It was sold as a massive parade, but then it kind of turned into him just introducing aircraft fly-over, which for the President of the United States seemed just kind of out of place where he’s kind of giving you the very brief history on this helicopter and then stepping back.
NICHOLS: Yeah, it was almost like, it’s like he was announcing an air show.
PERRY: Yeah.
NICHOLS: It certainly wasn’t the big Bastille Day thing that had entranced him enough to do this.
VOSSOUGHIAN: Right. Or what we've seen from the like of Kim Jong-un in North Korea, either.
Can you imagine MSNBC's reaction if tanks had rolled down the streets? Really, President Trump just can't win with these people.
Note: that wasn't the only trashing of the event that the panel doled out. Host Yasmin Vossoughian repeatedly quoted Nichols having called President Trump's speech "Soviet-like."
For "balance," former Newt Gingrich adviser and current MSNBC Republican Rick Tyler was trying to say hey, Trump puts on a good show, and he (personally) didn't have a problem with saluting the military:
RICK TYLER: And that is where this is all started. He went to Bastille Day, said this is really great. We should do something like this. And he’s a production manager. I mean, he put on a show. Look, if you like Trump, it was a great show. I don’t have any particular problem with the military. We love our military, but as Tom says, it’s just that he cast himself, he's Central Casting, puts himself next to it and has this cloying sort of effect.
