MSNBC on Tuesday night managed to sound like it was 2008 all over again. Just after midnight, reporter Vaughn Hillyard offered up Obama-era gush, touting Pete Buttigieg as an “amazing human being” who does “everything perfectly.”
Talking to Katy Tur and other MSNBC journalists, Hillyard rhapsodized over Buttigieg’s ability to give speeches: “If you go back and read the transcript of his speech, it’s like he typed it out and he has the comma and everything perfectly because he speaks in perfect sentences. It’s impressive. He's an amazing human being.”
Hillyard cheered, “People are looking at him, oftentimes you hear especially these older voters who he's doing well with, is their son or the person they want their son or daughter to be friends with or date. I think that is the part that makes him so compelling to these people is he is that guy that everybody wanted their kids to be friends with at school.”
“Perfect.” “Amazing human being.” Who does this sound like? Why, Chris Matthews talking about Obama. In 2012, he thrilled: “He’s the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American.”
Considering that 2020 Matthews has soured on the current Democratic field, comparing them to drunks who need a “ride home,” perhaps Hillyard can be the new face of fawning MSNBC.
Not to be outdone, however, fellow MSNBC journalist Ali Vitali praised her experience with the “generally warm” Elizabeth Warren:
I find her to be generally warm. She answers a lot of the questions that you ask her and truly — like she's not messing around when she says she loves to talk about policy. If you ask her a policy question, be prepared fo her to go into the policy weeds on it. It's not fake. She actually really likes this stuff. When she gets up on stage and she's like, “Nerds,” that's real.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
MSNBC's New Hampshire live coverage
2/12/2020
12:41 AMALI VITALI: I find her to be generally warm. She answers a lot of the questions that you ask her and truly -- like she's not messing around when she says she loves to talk about policy. If you ask her a policy question, be prepared fo her to go into the policy weeds on it. It's not fake. She actually really likes this stuff. When she gets up on stage and she's like, “Nerds,” that's real.
...
12:42 AM ET
KATY TUR: What is Pete Buttigieg like?
VAUGHN HILLYARD: A year ago if you had asked me who would be the nominee at this point, I would have thought it was like an emotional leader, somebody like a Steve Bullock or a Beto or Kamala Harris who would be leading the march down Fifth Avenue. I thought I knew things, you know. But then, look, God bless Pete Buttigieg, but he kind of talks at the level of Mr. Rogers and with that composure and poise and he just did it up here on the stage in New Hampshire.
TUR: I saw him stumble just for a beat in his speech tonight and I thought, “I've never seen that. I’ve never seen him pause in any sort of awkward way and he did that tonight.” He’s always so on.
HILLYARD: And if you go back and read the transcript of his speech, it’s like he typed it out and he has the comma and everything perfectly because he speaks in perfect sentences. It’s impressive. He's an amazing human being. Conversationally, I'd like to get to that point where we get to know Pete huttigieg a little more. We haven’t quite had that yet.
I was talking to his advisers. They said this is who he is. This, what you see on stage is Pete Buttigieg. There's nothing more. Speechless. Vaughn Hillyard is never speechless.
GARRETT HAAKE: In a long campaign, don't you have to show that part of yourself eventually. How long can you be the TV character version of yourself? I don't mean that in a derogatory way.
HILLYARD: People are looking at him, oftentimes you hear especially these older voters who he's doing well with, is their son or the person they want their son or daughter to be friends with or date. I think that is the part that makes him so compelling to these people is he is that guy that everybody wanted their kids to be friends with at school.
