The cable networks ran a full-court press in covering President Obama’s endorsement on Thursday afternoon of Hillary Clinton with MSNBC giving Brian Williams the keys to the network for a few hours and, in the first 10 minutes, he seemed to blame talk radio for not reminding voters of Donald Trump’s birtherim enough that was, in his words, an “original sin.”
MSNBC Live host Craig Melvin cut a segment short at 1:52 p.m. Eastern to report the tweet from the President’s endorsement of Clinton as being unrivaled in qualifications for the presidency.
After reading the tweet, Melvin stepped aside for Williams, who declared that “[t]his was not expected” in light of Bernie Sanders visiting the White House just hours beforehand and Democrats “using words like gentle and delicate to talk about the treatment he requires and deserves.”
A few moments later, Williams brought on Hardball host Chris Matthews, who pontificated yet again that he thinks the President hasn’t forgotten about Trump’s birtherism charges from 2012 so he wants to help Democrats “win not just an election this fall, but a mandate.”
“That means perhaps taking the U.S. Senate, that means Hillary Clinton winning by 54 percent, 55 percent in the popular vote, a swinging, big time victory for her, maybe up to the Lyndon Johnson level. He also I think would like to humiliate Donald Trump and teach the Republican Party not to ever do this again,” Matthews added.
Naturally, Williams complimented Matthews and picked up on Matthews’s points about birtherism to compare it to the Original Sin from the Bible plus blame “the outrage machine” for helping voters forget about Trump’s wasteful crusade:
Chris, something you go back to and you're right to do it, and you just did, with the pace of the daily news cycle in this country, the outrage machine that takes a big lungful of air every day and expends it by the next day and then starts up the next day, cranks up again, people forget what you call Donald Trump's original sin. The way a lot of people became aware of him as a political player with an opinion was when he called out the President for his — where he was born.
For as much as the media loves to attack Christianity, it might help them in illustrating their bias if they stopped using Christian-like phrases in their news reporting.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC Live on June 9 can be found below.
MSNBC Live
June 9, 2016
1:52 p.m. Eastern
CRAIG MELVIN: Some breaking news to report right now. Word — we are getting word that President Obama is now going to be endorsing Hillary Clinton. Brian Williams is going to be picking up our coverage right now. Here's the tweet, by the way, President Obama endorsing Hillary Clinton. “I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.” Brian?
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Well, Craig, especially in light of the coverage of yours that I've been watching and listening to for the past hour or so, this was not expected. Bernie Sanders went to the White House today. Democrats have been using words like gentle and delicate to talk about the treatment he requires and deserves after mobilizing so many millions of Americans in his campaign effort.
(...)
1:56 p.m. Eastern
WILLIAMS: Chris, I think you would underscore that this is a big surprise.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah, I think old men on the air they used to call these new facts and now we have a new fact. The President has endorsed Hillary Clinton and that's new now and you have to wonder what the conversation was between the President and Senator Sanders. Did he say I'm about to endorse Hillary Clinton in the next few minutes? We'll have to find that later. But clearly, I’ve been thinking about this like you have and everyone else: what's the President's concern about this election? I think his concern is that he'd like to win big. He'd like the Democrats to win not just an election this fall, but a mandate. That means perhaps taking the U.S. Senate, that means Hillary Clinton winning by 54 percent, 55 percent in the popular vote, a swinging, big time victory for her, maybe up to the Lyndon Johnson level. He also I think would like to humiliate Donald Trump and teach the Republican Party not to ever do this again. I think he's still angry about the birtherism charge that he’s an illegal immigrant from Kenya, someone born outside the country and somehow found his way through mysterious channels to become President of the United States. I don't think he wants that to stay in the public discussion. So I think he really wants a strong merger with Hillary Clinton. He really wants her to win big. I think the fact that he's going to Wisconsin next week, according to planning we're getting, tells you a lot because as Lee Atwater taught us in the old days, in the bad old days, the best way to break the back of the other party is to take away a state they absolutely know they need and clearly, the whole plan of the Trump campaign is to gather those additional northern industrial states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio and take them away from the Democrats. If they can go up there next week and basically put their stakes down and say we're going to hold this part of the country. They're saying that Donald Trump and to the Republican Party, you are not going to win this November.
WILLIAMS: Chris, something you go back to and you're right to do it, and you just did, with the pace of the daily news cycle in this country, the outrage machine that takes a big lungful of air every day and expends it by the next day and then starts up the next day, cranks up again, people forget what you call Donald Trump's original sin. The way a lot of people became aware of him as a political player with an opinion was when he called out the President for his — where he was born.
