MSNBC continued to push the narrative of Marco Rubio being the robotic GOP candidate on Tuesday, the day of the New Hampshire primary. During the network’s live coverage of the state’s primary, host Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd performed their rendition of 1980’s classic Mr. Roboto by the band Styx. “Domo arigato, Marco Roboto.” The hosts sang in unison.
The singing came after a clip was shown of Rubio walking through a crowd in New Hampshire from that morning, with a protester shouting “robot” at him multiple times. “The robot chants. A reference, of course, to his Saturday night debate performance. He had a tangle with Chris Christie. People started calling him Marco Roboto, because he robotically repeated the same line four times.” Guthrie reported.
“Is it wrong that I go back to our childhood and Styx?” Todd chimed in.
The narrative of Marco Rubio being the preprogrammed robot candidate is one MSNBC has been trying to drive home for a while now. On Monday morning Chris Matthew compared Rubio to ‘replicants’ from the 1982 science-fiction film Blade Runner. Unironically, it was comparison he himself would repeat for the rest of the day on MSNBC.
Harsh coverage of Rubio has become common place on the network in recent days. When Rubio surrogate Rick Santorum had an embarrassing interview on Morning Joe, on February 4, the network replayed it ad nauseum for two days in a row.
Transcript below:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
February 9, 2016
10:22:33 – 10:23:08[Video of Marco Rubio in New Hampshire]
PROTESTER: Robot! Robot! Robot! Robot! Robot! Robot!
CHUCK TODD: Wow. Ouch
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: That wasn't the greeting Marco Rubio was hoping for. He had some supporters there, and yes, he did have–
TODD: This was today, this morning.
[Cuts back to studio]
GUTHRIE: The robot chants. A reference, of course, to his Saturday night debate performance. He had a tangle with Chris Christie. People started calling him Marco Roboto, because he robotically repeated the same line four times.
TODD: I keep, by the way. Is it wrong that I go back to our childhood and Styx?
GUTHRIE & TODD: [In unison] Domo arigato, Marco Roboto.
GUTHRIE: Yeah, you’re not the only one. You know, a lot of people remember Styx with fondness.
