MSNBC anchor Brian Williams on Monday night admitted that he finds watching White House press conferences on the coronavirus to be tiring, complaining about the length as quite the “undertaking.” Williams, who lost his NBC Nightly News anchoring job after telling multiple lies, began the show with his typical countdown: “Day 1,180 of the Trump administration. 204 days until our presidential election.... It's actually difficult to clarify or assess or synopsize what happened during today's White House briefing.”
He lectured, “Upon watching it, a good many people thought this was as close to a meltdown as you ever want to see from a U.S. President.” Of the briefing, Williams complained, “The gaslighting today again in full view.”
The MSNBC host then derided the press conferences as too long and an “undertaking.”
It seems, depending on what you read, that most of the people watching are the people arguing none of us should be carrying these events live, which is a conversation and a debate for another time. Who is watching? And who do you think he's aiming at? Is this straight to the base? Because this is a two-hour undertaking for any and all of us who watch this.
MSNBC analyst and AP reporter Jonathan Lemire dismissed the press conferences as nothing more than attempts to attack the media: “Certainly, some of this is aimed at the base, and we're seeing the attacks in the media play towards that audience. The President knows that a lot of his supporters dislike the mainstream media and he can always score some points.”
In case anyone was concerned though, Lemire assured viewers that there is no bias.
But more than that, it's trying to undermine the press's credibility when the media, when we report bad headlines down the road, perhaps his supporters will be less inclined to believe them because of the shots the President has taken, the attempts that he tries to paint us as biased when that, of course, is not what journalists are trying to do in that briefing room. They’re trying to get information.
If anyone has been watching the briefings – or CNN and MSNBC’s habit of not covering all of them – they might assume that journalists are far more interested in getting into fights with the President. Getting “information” doesn’t seem to be the focus.
A partial transcript of the segment is below. Click "expand" to read more.
The 11th Hour With Brian Williams
4/13/2020
11:01 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Day 1,180 of the Trump administration. 204 days until our presidential election, which seemed to get clarified further today. And it's actually difficult to clarify or assess or synopsize what happened during today's White House briefing. Upon watching it, a good many people thought this was as close to a meltdown as you ever want to see from a U.S. President. It was, as much as any pandemic press briefing can be, about him, his image and reputation, his slights and grievances, news coverage of him, settling scores, resetting the record, rewriting the history of January, February, March and thus far in April
11:18 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Jonathan Lemire, the gaslighting today again today in full view. The graphic we just showed, part of a freeze frame of the video clips that the media diminished the rise of the coronavirus. It seems, depending on what you read, that most of the people watching are the people arguing none of us should be carrying these events live, which is a conversation and a debate for another time. Who is watching? And who do you think he's aiming at? Is this straight to the base? Because this is a two-hour undertaking for any and all of us who watch this.
JONATHAN LEMIRE (MSNBC political analyst): Certainly, some of this is aimed at the base, and we're seeing the attacks in the media play towards that audience. The President knows that a lot of his supporters dislike the mainstream media and he can always score some points. But more than that, it's trying to undermine the press's credibility when the media, when we report bad headlines down the road, perhaps his supporters will be less inclined to believe them because of the shots the President has taken, the attempts that he tries to paint us as biased when that, of course, is not what journalists are trying to do in that briefing room.
They're trying to get information. That needs to not be overlooked here. It was a full 40 minutes in today's briefing before the President delivered anything in the sense of sort of facts of information in terms of updating a scared and mournful American public as to what the latest was on the pandemic. That took a back seat to his airing of the grievances, his attacks on the press. But he is certainly wrestling with the decision. Ashley is right.
There's a real tension in the White House right now from the public health officials who are suggesting a slow, cautious approach here as to whether or not to -- when the nation's economy should reopen. Others, including a task force that the President is going to announce tomorrow that's going to include the likes of Larry Kudlow, Steve Mnuchin, Ben Carson and others who are forging forward to see how can the nation reopen and when. And we know what the President wants. He was close to pulling the trigger to have it open up on Easter. It took Fauci and Birx to show him the models of how bad things could get if we were to do that to ward him off that idea. He is pretty centered on this May 1st date. He's given himself some wiggle room, yes, but that is what he wants. And I think we’re going to see in the coming days attempts to justify that decision. This is President whose whole re-election is based on a strong economy. He needs to get it going again.
