In a disturbing example of just how far down the gutter they had sunk, Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News featured back-to-back reports hyping opponents of President Trump deriding him and First Lady Melania Trump in a sexual manner. In sharp contrast, their broadcast network competitors CBS Evening News and ABC’s World News Tonight were classy enough to leave the low brow attacks out of their programs.
After reporting on the unfolding international fight over the murder of journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, anchor Lester Holt huffed that Trump had found time to attack porn star Stormy Daniels during that “crisis”. “The President calling Stormy Daniels ‘horse face,” he complained.
“From the President, a triumphant tweet with a gratuitous insult, after learning a defamation lawsuit filed against him by porn star Stormy Daniels has been dismissed,” NBC chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson said. She then highlighted Daniels’ response which included a snide comment about the President private parts. “Game on, tiny,” Jackson enthusiastically read from the porn star’s tweet.
Like it or not, insults were something the President was known for since he leveled them at all his opponents indiscriminately. But the liberal media were obsessed with misleading the public with suggestions it was something he only reserved for so-called protected groups.
Not only was this “the latest jab at a woman's appearance” by Trump, but according to Holt, it was a problem for the GOP since they faced “a major gender gap just three weeks until the midterm elections.” “But now, three weeks from the midterms, the latest polling shows more than half of all women strongly disapprove of the President,” Jackson seemed to boast.
Jackson spoke with NBC political analyst and pretend Republican Elise Jordan who claimed to speak for all GOP women when she claimed: “Women who previously voted Republican just aren't going to do it this midterm cycle and they might not ever do it again in their lifetimes.”
And as if it was some kind of twisted comeuppance, NBC then turned to tout a disgusting video by rapper T.I. “With the President's comments about women under scrutiny,” Holt quipped. “[S]taffers for First Lady Melania Trump are lashing out over a rap star's new video featuring a look-alike of Mrs. Trump doing something very suggestive in the Oval Office.”
“The clip, part of a promotional rollout by rapper T.I., shows a fake Mrs. Trump in the Oval Office stripping off a replica of that infamous green jacket,” White House correspondent Kristen Welker explained. While they described the First Lady’s team as “lashing out” in response, there was no such critical qualifier against the video itself.
The general tone of the report seemed to scoff at the outrage from the First Lady’s office and their call for a boycott of the rapper. Welker noted that “T.I. didn't respond to our request for comment, but tweeted with the video, ‘Dear 45, I ain’t Kanye.’ That, a reference to last week's controversial visit to the Oval Office by rap superstar Kanye West.”
Welker ended her report with this crude joke: “A controversy that lays bare the bitterness of the national discourse.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
October 16, 2018
7:04:49 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: And as that crisis deepens, the President, with no public events on his schedule today at the White House, instead, leveling a personal attack on the porn star who claims they had an affair. The President calling Stormy Daniels "horse face." It's the latest jab at a woman's appearance as Republicans face a major gender gap just three weeks until the midterm elections. We get more now from Hallie Jackson.
[Cuts to video]
HALLIE JACKSON: From the President, a triumphant tweet with a gratuitous insult, after learning a defamation lawsuit filed against him by porn star Stormy Daniels has been dismissed. “Great,” he wrote. “Now I can go after horse face and her third-rate lawyer.” Daniels, deriding the President, responded – “game on, tiny.” Tweeting about his “hatred of women and lack of self-control on Twitter again.” For the President, horse face is just the latest insult aimed at the looks of women he doesn’t like. Take his 2016 opponent, Carly Fiorina. “Look at that face”, then-candidate trump commented. “Would anyone vote for that?”
(…)
JACKSON: On former miss universe Alicia Machado:
(…)
JACKSON: There was this about Jessica Leads, who accused him of sexual assault.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I'm going to go after her. Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.
JACKSON: And this about Megyn Kelly, after a testy debate exchange.
TRUMP: You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.
(…)
JACKSON: But now, three weeks from the midterms, the latest polling shows more than half of all women strongly disapprove of the President.
ELISE JORDAN: Women who previously voted Republican just aren't going to do it this midterm cycle and they might not ever do it again in their lifetimes.
[Cuts back to live]
JACKSON: Still, in that new interview with the Associated Press late tonight, the President says he will not accept blame if Republicans do lose the House, pointing out he's not on the ballot.
(…)
7:07:08 p.m. Eastern
HOLT: With the President's comments about women under scrutiny, staffers for First Lady Melania Trump are lashing out over a rap star's new video featuring a look-alike of Mrs. Trump doing something very suggestive in the Oval Office. NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker has that story.
[Cuts to video]
KRISTEN WELKER: This viral video of a Melania Trump look-alike, has the real First Lady's team fuming. The clip, part of a promotional rollout by rapper T.I., shows a fake Mrs. Trump in the Oval Office stripping off a replica of that infamous green jacket. Her spokesperson calling for a boycott of the rapper. “It's disrespectful and disgusting to portray her this way simply because of politics. These kinds of vulgar attacks only further the divisiveness and bias in our country. It needs to stop.”
T.I. didn't respond to our request for comment, but tweeted with the video, “Dear 45, I ain’t Kanye.” That, a reference to last week's controversial visit to the Oval Office by rap superstar Kanye West.
(…)
WELKER: T.I. blasted West as a puppet for President Trump. But his online video is aimed at a first lady who has made her anti-bullying campaign her signature issue.
FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP: As adults, we can and should be best.
WELKER: Recently saying she feels like a prime target.
M. TRUMP: I could say I'm the most bullied person in the world.
WELKER: A controversy that lays bare the bitterness of the national discourse. Kristen Welker, NBC News, the White House.
