In this week’s installment of hilarious irony involving serial liar and MSNBC host Brian Williams, the ex-NBC Nightly News anchor lamented President Donald Trump’s “reckless smear” of Barack Obama with “no evidence” offered by any “serious person” now being diverted by the “shiny object” of health care reform.
Williams opened Monday’s The 11th Hour by lamenting that the media and most administrations would be “focused on health care and immigration, but that is not the case” thanks to Trump’s “rant” going after former President Obama.
Taking a shot at talk radio hosts like Mark Levin and Trump supporters for lacking credibility when it comes to the facts, Williams explained:
No serious person would say what he did. President Trump offered no evidence. There is no evidence. So, we are left with a reckless smear of a former President. In that way, it was a stunner of a weekend here and abroad...The President’s outburst seems to have gotten its start as theory on talk radio, then codified somewhat by Breitbart News, which seems to then have made its way to the leader of the free world.
The man who lied about stories while in Iraq and New Orleans then proclaimed the need for “moral authority” at the country’s highest level: “The office of the President, if not the occupant, must speak with moral authority, especially at a time when North Korea is lobbing four missiles into the sea off Japan as they did just over 29 hours ago.”
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Speaking later to his panelists, Williams demanded Trump immediately come clean “to own this and come out and address this” (unlike Williams with his lies in his wishy-washy mea culpa) even though he may be under the influence of what Williams deemed the “prison yard spotlight theory.”
Here’s a portion of his meandering definition:
It — could this be, whatever Donald Trump is talking about, an example of the prison yard spotlight in that, most of the time, you're not in it and you're able to cavort in the prison yard. When it’s on you, when it pans over you, when it picks you up in bright light, it's a bright light. Could this be — when you talk about the awesome switch of intelligence gathering when it's turned on, when it’s focused on you, it's incredible. Can't there be kind of accessories to that, people who are picked up as a matter of course in the investigation?
On Tuesday, the irony was still unescapable. Williams opened by gently congratulating the media for remaining focused on this topic and not be distracted by the “shiny object” of the GOP’s repeal and replace plan for ObamaCare.
This was particularly interesting because Trump was the media’s beloved shiny object from start to finish of the 2016 election and particularly in the primary as his interviews, rallies, and reports received top billing above his opponents.
“It has taken a while but members of the media and members of our audience, our consumers, are now aware of the theory of the shiny object, meaning with bad news envelopes this still new administration, it is often followed by a shiny object meant to avert our attention,” Williams hyped.
Williams continued:
And today, one could argue the new health care bill was that shiny object, because no one expects it to emerge, to survive in the same form and because the White House is attention to change the narrative. And that is because the current president has accused his predecessor of wiretapping while offering no evidence. So even though the Health Secretary came into the briefing room today accompanied by papers stacked on a table, even though this is about ObamaCare, a Trump and GOP rallying cry, reporters in that press corps weren't having it, wanting to know what right the President has of accusing the former President of a felony.
Williams later teed up former Kerry official and Time magazine editor Richard Stengel by touting a Lawrence Tribe tweet that Trump’s accusations of Obama spying on him would be an impeachable offense:
I have to ask it this way. How bad is this? And I ask because people with education closer to yours than mine are using the I-word. They're calling what the President Obama, serious people, an impeccable offense. I want to read Lawrence Tribe, Harvard Law School: “Using the power of the White House to falsely accuse your predecessor of impeachable felony does qualify as an impeachable offense, whether via tweet or not.” Now, this has traditionally been a very high bar in our Congress. But how bad is this, do you think?
Going lastly to Wednesday, the MSNBC anchor promised viewers that he would stay on this subject (and, you know, unlike NBC when it came to disclosing Williams’s misdeeds):
12 days until the March 20th House Intelligence Committee hearings on Russia. It's now been four days since Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of a felony and as predicted on this broadcast last night, as will be the case again tomorrow, the questions about the President, demanding any and all proof, any evidence that he was wiretapped are not going away.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams from March 6, 7, and 8:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
March 6, 2017
11:00 p.m. Eastern
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Day 45, the beginning of week number seven of the Trump administration. Ideally. this Monday at the White House and thus this broadcast on a Monday night, should have focused on health care and immigration but that is not the case. In a misspelled rant on Twitter, around 6:30 in the morning on Saturday, in addition to attacking the host of the TV show Apprentice, the President went where no president has ever gone. He accused his predecessor of a felony, referencing McCarthyism and Watergate, he said Barack Obama had tapped his phone at Trump Tower and said the former two term president was a “bad (or sick) guy.” No serious person would say what he did. President Trump offered no evidence. There is no evidence. So, we are left with a reckless smear of a former President. In that way, it was a stunner of a weekend here and abroad. The office of the President, if not the occupant, must speak with moral authority, especially at a time when North Korea is lobbing four missiles into the sea off Japan as they did just over 29 hours ago. The President’s outburst seems to have gotten its start as theory on talk radio, then codified somewhat by Breitbart News, which seems to then have made its way to the leader of the free world.
(....)
WILLIAMS: What needs to happen now? Does — doesn't the President need to own this and come out and address this?
(....)
WILLIAMS: I have something called my prison yard spotlight theory that I’m going to run past Malcolm Nance in our next segment.
(....)
WILLIAMS: So, Malcolm, I know you’ve spent minutes waiting to hear my prison yard spotlight theory, but here it is. It — could this be, whatever Donald Trump is talking about, an example of the prison yard spotlight in that, most of the time, you're not in it and you're able to cavort in the prison yard. When it’s on you, when it pans over you, when it picks you up in bright light, it's a bright light. Could this be — when you talk about the awesome switch of intelligence gathering when it's turned on, when it’s focused on you, it's incredible. Can't there be kind of accessories to that, people who are picked up as a matter of course in the investigation?(....)
March 7, 2017
11:00 p.m. EasternWILLIAMS: It has taken a while but members of the media and members of our audience, our consumers, are now aware of the theory of the shiny object, meaning with bad news envelopes this still new administration, it is often followed by a shiny object meant to avert our attention. This is hardly unique, we should stress, to the Trump administration. It’s a time-honored tradition in politics. But because this White House came to power accompanied by at least the whiff of scandal, because this is legitimately our first TV star President with 100 percent name recognition before being elected, and as media savvy as they come, it’s been employed early and often. And today, one could argue the new health care bill was that shiny object, because no one expects it to emerge, to survive in the same form and because the White House is attention to change the narrative. And that is because the current president has accused his predecessor of wiretapping while offering no evidence. So even though the Health Secretary came into the briefing room today accompanied by papers stacked on a table, even though this is about ObamaCare, a Trump and GOP rallying cry, reporters in that press corps weren't having it, wanting to know what right the President has of accusing the former President of a felony.
(....)
WILLIAMS: I have to ask it this way. How bad is this? And I ask because people with education closer to yours than mine are using the I-word. They're calling what the President Obama, serious people, an impeccable offense. I want to read Lawrence Tribe, Harvard Law School: “Using the power of the White House to falsely accuse your predecessor of impeachable felony does qualify as an impeachable offense, whether via tweet or not.” Now, this has traditionally been a very high bar in our Congress. But how bad is this, do you think?
(....)
WILLIAMS: This will be, what? The eighth week of the Trump administration and the attention will shift away from the White House. You’ll need a box of highway flares if you're looking for a shiny object. It’s going to be Capitol Hill day and night.
(....)
March 8, 2017
11:01 p.m. EasternWILLIAMS: 12 days until the March 20th House Intelligence Committee hearings on Russia. It's now been four days since Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of a felony and as predicted on this broadcast last night, as will be the case again tomorrow, the questions about the President, demanding any and all proof, any evidence that he was wiretapped are not going away.
