Staunch Republicans may have loved President Trump's long speech on Thursday night, but it's easy to suspect that the journalists watching it were going to go beyond skeptical. Here's how the Associated Press summed up: "Rebranding Trump, former president recalls shooting details but avoids policy details." There wasn't any policy in that speech? Did they expect Trump to read paragraphs from the Heritage Foundation?
NPR.org summed up the media themes: First came "A temporary appeal for unity," which felt phony to them, followed by "Trump returns to familiar rhetoric." They absorbed Trump's recounting of the shooting, but seemed almost relieved when it went back to Build the Wall and Drill, Baby, Drill.
Seconds after it ended, the taxpayer-funded PBS News Hour anchors Amna & Geoff were dismissing it as grievances and "falsehoods."
PBS right after the speech. Amna Nawaz said the speech "veered into themes of grievance and politics and partisan issues of the past."
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 19, 2024
Geoff Bennett: "The initial calls for unity quickly gave way to attacks on Democrats, to a litany of falsehoods, to a string of insults." pic.twitter.com/EkQiJGzsNA
On ABC, Jonathan Karl thought the speech would end up helping Democrats. Don't the networks routinely announce that every happening will probably help Democrats and hurt Republicans?
Democrats think they “can beat this guy” because, ABC’s @JonKarl asserted: “This was filled with divisive rhetoric, he went back to the lies about the election. He disparaged ‘crazy’ Nancy Pelosi. He said terrible things about Joe Biden. This was not a unity speech.” #RNC2024 pic.twitter.com/EXLgpGEvij
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) July 19, 2024
On CBS, John Dickerson underlined the "fact checkers" would be extremely busy chasing down the lies. (But after Democrats speak, they're too emotionally invested to worry about facts.)
“The fact-checkers probably should have a GoFundMe for trying to chase down all of the falsehoods” – John Dickerson on CBS News after Trump’s speech. pic.twitter.com/6C8XqYwPRW
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) July 19, 2024
They also broke out into their own Fact Checking mode. ABC anchor David Muir and justice correspondent Pierre Thomas were trying to "correct" the idea that crime is worse under the Democrats.
ABC’s @PierreTABC: “Crime has been dropping in this country for the last two years, and, in fact, if you look at the final year of the Trump administration he had one of the biggest surges in gun violence in recent history.” #RNC2024 pic.twitter.com/0ey2vsKvOA
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) July 19, 2024
On NBC, Hallie Jackson hit the typical talking point that this was no "unity" speech, it was another divisive speech:
“This is who he has been for the past 8 years,” @HallieJackson. “While he nodded at the top to say he wanted to represent all of America, it turns out that comes with a catch” as he “insists he’s not a threat to democracy,” but “he wants unity on his terms only.” #RNC2024 pic.twitter.com/6zjbVxS1rp
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) July 19, 2024
MSNBC's Joy Reid aerobically sought to paint Trump as suffering from the exact same cognitive decline that Biden is displaying. Projection!
Joy Reid claims if Joe Biden gave the type of speech Trump did, "Democrats would be demanding that the 25th amendment be invoked immediately. They would scramble even worse than they are now to jettison him..."
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 19, 2024
She adds that his brain is going just like Biden's pic.twitter.com/tJPzlR36hg
It wouldn't be a typical Trump-speech aftermath without someone attacking Trump's narcissism. On PBS, David Brooks caused laughter by talking about what a boring spectacle the speech became.
David Brooks on PBS, post-speech: There is no cure for narcissism. It's not just boring. I went to college. [Laughter] But it was a reflection of the character flaw that marred his presidency, that he is self indulgent, he's self absorbed, he's narcissistic, and undisciplined. pic.twitter.com/5U1J2kYAOh
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 19, 2024
Speaking of egotists, Jonathan Capehart jumped in to say he was right all along that Trump would be divisive. He mocked a Trump-supporting congresswoman who said Trump would be a "new person" now that God has given him another chance. Capehart said "No! That's not what we saw!"
