These people just won’t let up. Late Friday afternoon, MSNBC couldn’t help but knock the slow pace of the Inauguration Day parade and the Trump family as the new but inexperienced Romanov family that ruled Russia for centuries.
Just after 5:00 p.m. Eastern, co-host Brian Williams took note of the diminishing sunlight and its effect on the parade: “[L]ook at that — the ambient light. We are losing daylight fast. I believe I read sundown was at 5:16 local time tonight. So again, so many of the acts in this long parade, which is still unspooling, are going to be without daylight as they come down.”
The cable network had alluded to it throughout the afternoon, but there was no official reason given until Williams revealed that Inauguration organizer Tom Barrack blamed the delay and “many empty bleachers” and “lunch [running] late and then they could not get bussed down in time.”
Seconds later, co-host Rachel Maddow blurted out: “This is — they're screwing this up, man.”
<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>
When the First Family walked from the White House to the parade viewing stand, Matthews seized the spotlight by comparing the Trumps to the royal family who ran Russia from the 1600s until their execution at the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution:
MATTHEWS: Why do I think of the Romanovs? There’s an aspect here. [ROBINSON LAUGHS] I mean, this extended family, they're all attractive, of course, and just we're getting to know all of them so quickly —
MADDOW: Well, it's a big family And it spans a lot of years.
MATTHEWS: — and the power’s being distributed among the family.
MADDOW: — children from three different marriages. So he’s a ten-year-old. He’s got also sons who are, you know, in their early 40s.
MATTHEWS: He’s investing his family with authority. [GROANS] I mean, who's going to argue with Jared in the government? Who's going to take that position?
MADDOW: Well and who's going to challenge the potential violation of the nepotism law? Right, I mean, the nepotism law says —
MATTHEWS: It's pretty clear.
MADDOW: — a president, among other officials, cannot hire a relative, including a son-in-law.
While host Brian Williams and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson blasted the Trump administration’s plans to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Matthews warned that “[t]he upside is an inch and the downside risk is about a mile” seeing as how “[w]e don't know what will happen if another intifada or worse.”
Robinson responded in a snarky tone that “maybe Jared Kushner knows something else somebody else hasn't known for the last 50 years” while Maddow offered her own swipe: “He is a 35-year-old real estate developer.” For those keeping score at home, Maddow received her own MSNBC show at 35.
Here are the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s 2017 Presidential Inauguration coverage:
MSNBC’s 2017 Presidential Inauguration
January 20, 2017
5:08 p.m. Eastern
BRIAN WILLIAMS: The lit up west front of the Capitol, especially lit up for this occasion. As I mentioned, look at that — the ambient light. We are losing daylight fast. I believe I read sundown was at 5:16 local time tonight. So again, so many of the acts in this long parade, which is still unspooling, are going to be without daylight as they come down.
RACHEL MADDOW: Or they will have marched past the reviewing stand before the President is in it.
WILLIAMS: Yes, true and that also brings us to an explanation that the organizers gave us, Tom Barrack who is the venture capital guy from New York who Donald Trump had set up this event has explained to us that we're seeing so many empty bleachers because lunch ran late and then they could not get bussed down in time.
MADDOW: Wow.
WILLIAMS: Though I don't know how that hasn't been a constant for many years, the end of the meal versus the arrival of the parade at the White House
EUGENE ROBINSON: Exactly. That would be pretty close to time interval and thus wouldn't matter that the lunch was late. Anyhow —
MADDOW: This is — they're screwing this up, man. I mean —
(....)
WILLIAMS: Here comes the extended Trump family — out to the reviewing stand, including Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner.
MATTHEWS: Why do I think of the Romanovs? There’s an aspect here. [ROBINSON LAUGHS] I mean, this extended family, they're all attractive, of course, and just we're getting to know all of them so quickly —
MADDOW: Well, it's a big family And it spans a lot of years.
MATTHEWS: — and the power’s being distributed among the family.
MADDOW: — children from three different marriages. So he’s a ten-year-old. He’s got also sons who are, you know, in their early 40s.
MATTHEWS: He’s investing his family with authority. [GROANS] I mean, who's going to argue with Jared in the government? Who's going to take that position?
MADDOW: Well and who's going to challenge the potential violation of the nepotism law? Right, I mean, the nepotism law says —
MATTHEWS: It's pretty clear.
MADDOW: — a president, among other officials, cannot hire a relative, including a son-in-law.
WILLIAMS: When your father-in-law says about you on the eve of the inauguration, if you can't get to Mideast peace, no one can.
MATTHEWS: Well one of the moves they're making is not a way toward Middle East peace which is moving our embassy to Jerusalem. I would like to see the America first policy followed there. Which is is that in our interest? I don't think so.
WILLIAMS: Yeah. That is a often misunderstood in this country what the import of that would be.
ROBINSON: Yeah. It would be huge.
MATTHEWS: The upside is an inch and the downside risk is about a mile. We don't know what will happen if another intifada or worse. We don't know what will follow.
ROBINSON: Well, maybe Jared Kushner knows something else somebody else hasn't known for the last 50 years but —
MATTHEWS: But we may know his position.
MADDOW: He is a 35-year-old real estate developer.
