As violence engulfed Wisconsin on Wednesday and Republicans continued night three of their convention, journalists on MSNBC did their best to connect the events to the presidential election in November. On ABC, Tom Llamas worried about the “danger” of Wisconsin helping Trump. On MSNBC, far-left host Lawrence O’Donnell saw the shooting and riots as an “outgrowth” of Donald Trump.
Talking to Terry Moran, Tom Llamas worried: “I saw a video that struck me today. It was a white business owner of a pizzaria that was destroyed and all the glass was broken and he was pleading at the protesters, the demonstrators, screaming at them: ‘Do you want to re-elect Trump?’ Essentially saying, ‘You are going to fire up the other side.’ Do you think that's the case? Could it happen? Is there a danger here?”
Way to go, ABC. Definitely getting the priorities right. Moran agreed there is concern: “ I saw that video, and I think there's a danger.”
Over on MSNBC, O’Donnell blamed the shooting of two by a 17-year-old on Donald Trump: “It does seem as we sit here tonight like an inevitable outgrowth of what’s been happening with Trump rhetoric, with the concept of open carry, and ‘bring my rifle to every public demonstration.’”
The MSNBC hour was sponsored by ClearChoice.
Partial transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read more.
ABC News convention coverage
8/26/20208:43 PM ET
TOM LLAMAS: I saw a video that struck me today. It was a white business owner of a pizzaria that was destroyed and all the glass was broken and he was pleading at the protesters, the demonstrators, screaming at them: ‘Do you want to re-elect Trump?’ Essentially saying, ‘You are going to fire up the other side.’ Do you think that's the case? Could it happen? Is there a danger here?
TERRY MORAN: I saw that video, and I think there's a danger. It's natural. And I had think Joe Biden in his statement tried to walk that line. Supporting an aggressive investigation of what does rook like a use of excessive force at the very least in the shooting of this man. While his children were in the back seat. How much of a threat was he? With his kids in the back seat. I think that, Biden talked about that, and he said that the destruction of property, the violence that doesn't help at all either. But what has changed the dynamic in the country, and why this issue, I think, now runs against the Republican Party, where in the past, the cry of law and order after public disturbances on racial issues was an advantage for will the Republican Party is this. [Holds up phone.] We all see these shootings now and kits hard to live with them.
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MSNBC live coverage of Republican National Convention
8/26/2020
11:40 PM ET
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Well, that is Rupert Murdoch financing vigilanteism. This is a conscious business decision made by Rupert Murdoch and his son that this is what they want to tell America. Of course, there was a very big police presence out there when that 17-year-old went out there. In fact, the 17-year-old was given a water bottle by police, some of whom considered it to be helpful to have these vigilantes out there in the streets doing this. It does seem as we sit here tonight like an inevitable outgrowth of what’s been happening with Trump rhetoric, with the concept of open carry, and “bring my rifle to every public demonstration.”
