Sunday's edition of MSNBC's The Weekend featured a clip from a town hall in Indiana's 5th Congressional District. In November, Trump and Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz carried the district handily: by 16 and 18 points, respectively.
Yet the crowd overwhelmingly and raucously cheered the suggestion that the congresswoman should demand Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's resignation, given the Signal chat that mistakenly included a journalist.
Co-host Symone Sanders claimed the cheering people were district "constituents," and co-host Michael Steele took it a step further, saying they were Republicans. The show provided no evidence to support either statement. Did MSNBC make any effort to confirm the residence or registration of the crowd members?
Hypocrisy-proof Steele concluded the segment by saying:
"This sets up additional narratives, I think, for voters as well as journalists to dig a little bit deeper and find out a little bit more."
Amen, Michael!
Why don't you "dig a little deeper" and report back what percentage of the crowd were, as you and Sanders claimed, Republican constituents of the 5th district? Was this an authentic grassroots outpouring? Cause we're getting a whiff of astroturf!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
The Weekend
3/30/25
8:00 am EDTSYMONE SANDERS: Donald Trump's Signal debacle is taking hold beyond the beltway. Everyday Americans are demanding action from Republican members of Congress, even as the president dismisses their concerns.
At a fiery town hall on Friday, voters urged Indiana Congresswoman Victoria Spartz to demand the resignations of cabinet officials who discussed sensitive military movements on the unsecured messaging app Signal.
TOWNHALL AUDIENCE MEMBER: Won't you demand the resignation of Pete Hegseth? [The overwhelming majority of the crowd goes wild, cheering the suggestion.]
SANDERS: I mean, Indiana's 5th Congressional District is not a bastion of a Democratic stronghold, if you will. Very red place.
Despite that spirited response from her constituents, though, Spartz said she would not call for resignations over the administration's recklessness. That falls right in line with what Trump just exclusively told our NBC News colleague Kristen Welker. Quote, I don't fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts.
What is the fake news and what is the witch hunt?
MICHAEL STEELE: [Laughs] Well, they're all the same. Look, we're in the childish game portion of all of this where, you know, Trump gets out and whines and stamps his feet and pouts and stomps and stamps, you know. And Republicans, you know, they wind up doing the same thing and looking very silly.
But the audience, that room of Republican voters in a red district have a different understanding of what they're seeing and witnessing from this administration, and they don't like it.
ALICIA MENENDEZ: It's interesting to me, too. I mean, the decision to talk about it at the town hall, obviously it came from the fact that voters brought it up, but the NRCC has issued guidance saying, don't touch this thing, stay on message. And and while she was not willing to call for his resignation, she also did not carry the water on the idea that this is this is trivial or unimportant.
SANDERS: Yes. Because people can again, the administration is asking you to ignore what you can see with your own eyes.
STEELE: Right.
SANDERS: And to ignore what what you believe in your own understanding. They're asking you to defy logic. And I think people should push back.
STEELE: And they are. And that's the best part of this.
And I think as this next week unfolds, this sets up additional narratives, I think, for voters as well as journalists to dig a little bit deeper and find out a little bit more.
