A Daily Caller study of first-week press interactions between Biden and Trump II drove MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell straight into delusional ranting. He claimed the White House press corps are now just polite stenographers of Trump's lies, that they are uniquely polite to Trump. How insulting it was to NBC's White House reporters!
The Daily Caller was boasting. "We did it. We triggered Lawrence O'Donnell with our fact-based reporting." White House reporter Reagan Reese pointed out in Biden's first week in office (Jan. 20-26, 2001), Biden took just six questions from the White House press corps, according to pool reports. "Some of these questions were answered with just one word."
By contrast, the Caller found "Trump surpassed that number just several hours after being sworn in as he took 75 total questions and follow-ups over a 48-minute period in the Oval Office while signing executive orders." Trump took questions from the press 11 times, often for extended periods of time, throughout his first week.
Lawrence O'Donnell was cranky about it:
O’DONNELL: Well, the right-wing, Trump-supporting website The Daily Caller ran a happy headline, for them, saying that Donald Trump, as president, takes more questions than Joe Biden did, as president, and, they’re right. They are very right to use the verb “takes,” instead of the verb “answers.”
Donald Trump takes more questions, publicly, than any president in history, but he answers fewer questions than any president in history, because, a lie is not an answer. To be a member of the White House Press Corps now, is to become practiced at taking Donald Trump dictation of lies. Which Donald Trump does with a casual confidence, knowing that the White House Press Corps will never scream at him, the way they could scream at Joe Biden whenever they felt like it, whenever they had a chance, whenever they were close enough.
This is delusional. Screaming Jim Acosta, anyone?
Our Managing Editor Curtis Houck tweeted three minutes of NBC’s Peter Alexander pressing Karoline Leavitt about the kerfuffle and hubbub over the temporary spending freeze, the anti-Trump freakout of the day. Somehow Larry is painting Peter as a worthless footstool for MAGA.
O'Donnell really leaned into this "polite for Trump" spin:
O’ DONNELL: Here's a sample of some of the things that the White House Press Corps said to the White House Press Secretary, who was more than a week late in delivering her first so-called press briefing:
‘Welcome.’ ‘You look great.’ ‘Isn’t this true?’ ‘You're doing a great job.’ ‘I apologize for interrupting.’ ‘If I may.’ ‘Secondly, if you're willing-’
That's how they would do a follow up, ‘secondly, if you're willing.’ It was the most polite session in the White House press briefing room in -- let me check -- four years.
Because it is the Trump White House press briefing room, there will be no screaming. The White House Press Corps will all sound like reasonable adults, and some of them will sound like fawning fans of the Press Secretary and the President, because the White House Press Corps has a special standard of behavior that they reserve uniquely for the Trump White House.
One of these phrases Larry hates, "I apologize for interrupting." That WAS Peter Alexander, from Curtis's clip.
Curtis wrote for us that Leavitt did a fine job on the president's behalf. He wasn't alone. Brian Stelter wrote in his CNN newsletter "Leavitt was polished and practiced, and White House reporters speculated afterward that Trump must have been pleased with the nearly hourlong show."
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