Terry Moran granted his first interview after being dismissed by ABC News to The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller, which is like going to MSNBC to vent your anti-Trump feelings. Unsurprisingly, Moran doubled down on his Twitter tirade over Trump and his top adviser Stephen Miller being "world-class haters," and Miller "eats his hate" and finds "spiritual nourishment" from his hate. Moran insisted this wasn't a "drunk tweet," but that it was The Truth.
Moran weirdly claimed "I'm a member of the most despised tribe in America. I'm a proud centrist." No one's really a "centrist" when it comes to Trump, but Moran is claiming that he's for "decency" and "tolerance." Then he brought up a role model.
"I guess I'm a Hubert Humphrey Democrat," he said, "I'm old enough to remember him. And you know, get practical things done that people need in a decent way, and stand up for what's right." Humphrey was a liberal Democrat pushing LBJ's massive "Great Society," not a centrist. It's like saying I'm a centrist who's a Ted Kennedy Democrat or a Jimmy Carter Democrat. But he suggested that because Miller "degrades" the civil discourse, he's "dangerous."
Miller pointed out that Republicans might say, aha, he's outed himself as a Democrat. The mask is off. Then Moran did the screw-objectivity thing.
"My own feeling is that you don't sacrifice your citizenship as a journalist. And your job is not to be objective. There is no Mount Olympus of objectivity where a Mandarin class of wise people have no feelings about their society. We're all in this together. What you have to be is fair and accurate."
He claimed his Trump interview was an example (Trump disagreed, in real time). And his midnight tweet? "I would also say this, while very hot, is an observation, a description that is accurate and true,"
He added later, "It was something that was in my heart and mind. And I would say I used very strong language, deliberately, because he, I felt, and it wasn't any – you see him all the time doing the same, spitting venom and lies into our debate, degrading our public discourse, debasing it and using the power of the White House and what he's been given to grind us down in that bile. And that's very disturbing to me."
It turns out that Terry Moran also thinks Scott Pelley's pompously screechy anti-Trump commencement address at Wake Forest was great. "I thought Scott was absolutely spot on," Moran said. "I'm now in a position where I can help in that good work. That fills me with joy as well. We can all put our shoulder to the wheel because I do think he's right. This is a moment of danger, and I'm happy to be able to help if I can."
So he's like Jim Acosta and Joy Reid and Don Lemon, cast aside by the networks, now feeling "liberated" to be screechy.
