Before signing off early Wednesday morning after almost 12 hours on the air, MSNBC’s so-called “A-Team” provided some predictably entertaining final thoughts as breaking news anchor Brian Williams reminded his liberal colleagues that their employer played a huge role in making Donald Trump the president-elect while Lawrence O’Donnell fretted that it’s “a mourning moment” filled with fear for much of America.
While O’Donnell and fellow co-host Rachel Maddow were wallowing over a pessimistic outlook on what it’ll be like to be a minority ethnic group in Trump’s America, Williams awkwardly injected a reality check onto the set by alluding to what NBC has done in giving rise to Trump.
“This network devoted years of programming and promotional support to a reality show that was mold-breaking for the time and contributed largely to making this New York developer, builder, licensor, landlord, investor, successful guy into a global celebrity and brand, a brand,” Williams explained.
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Meanwhile, O’Donnell struck a more pessimistic tone and made clear to viewers and especially supporters of the President-Elect that the liberal media will soon revert to this line of thought in showing they will have learned nothing about Middle America (with the only specific allusions to two deep blue states):
America is crying tonight. I’m not sure how much of America, but a very, very significant portion and I mean literally crying. I've gotten texts from a college campus about a dorm that’s just in tears. I know of another that I’m hearing from elsewhere and some of the people you were just talking about are crying from California to Massachusetts about this.
The Last Word host continued pontificating about the “sadness” being felt across the country that should be deemed “a mourning moment” that’s “filled with fear — filled with fear and Donald Trump, thankfully I don't think instilled any more fear tonight in his speech.”
“It wasn't one of those speeches that have that kind of stuff in it, but he has a job to do. What we saw happen in the stock market is happening in the hearts of Americans. They are afraid. Donald Trump has to address that,” O’Donnell recklessly concluded.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Election Night 2016 on November 9 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Election Night 2016
November 9, 2016
3:52 a.m. EasternBRIAN WILLIAMS: This network devoted years of programming and promotional support to a reality show that was mold-breaking for the time and contributed largely to making this New York developer, builder, licensor, landlord, investor, successful guy into a global celebrity and brand, a brand.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: That's true.
WILLIAMS: Who sells brand-name licensed products with his name on it. Just one of the things we've never seen before.
(....)
3:53 a.m. Eastern
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: America is crying tonight. I’m not sure how much of America, but a very, very significant portion and I mean literally crying. I've gotten texts from a college campus about a dorm that’s just in tears. I know of another that I’m hearing from elsewhere and some of the people you were just talking about are crying from California to Massachusetts about this. This is a sadness. It is a mourning moment for those people and it is a moment filled with fear — filled with fear and Donald Trump, thankfully I don't think instilled any more fear tonight in his speech. It wasn't one of those speeches that have that kind of stuff in it, but he has a job to do. What we saw happen in the stock market is happening in the hearts of Americans. They are afraid. Donald Trump has to address that.
