While there were nowhere near the level of meltdowns viewers witnessed on Election Night, they were still plentiful on MSNBC’s airwaves Thursday afternoon as President Trump announced that the United States will leave the Paris climate deal.
One series of MSNBC hot takes came on Deadline: White House from former Time editor and Kerry State Department official Richard Stengel, who admitted that the move “does depress me a little bit” and will mean that the U.S. is now longer the most powerful nation on earth but simply “Little America.”
“Rick Stengel, I'm guessing that it depresses you to hear this already reduced to a political who's up and who's down. This was a pretty important achievement of the Obama presidency,” fretted host and failed former McCain campaign official Nicolle Wallace.
Stengel agreed, stating that “it does depress me a little bit and it is a political decision, but one of the things that’s been wrong with the conversation...energy prices are at almost historic low.”
Ignoring the fact that energy industries such as coal, natural gas, and oil would be driven out due to the Paris deal, Stengel swooned that “the U.S. economy is thriving and doing better” not because of Trump. Therefore, he concluded that Trump “just missed that completely and deceived the audience and scared people about that.”
Following a soundbite from John Kerry employing scare tactics that the children of Trump voters will now “have worse asthma” and “a harder time having economic growth,” Wallace gushed over Kerry’s argument:
So, I actually think that — that the former secretary of state made the most powerful counter-argument, and I think there's going — I think Matt's right. There's going to be a lot of hysteria about pulling out of the accord, but he made — this is the best articulation I heard of the economic argument, that he presented a lie, basically to American people, that we have to choose between, you know, pollution and jobs.
This all teed up Stengel to applaud how “eloquently” his former boss spoke and attack Trump as “very, very shortsighted.”
Taking a page from what CNN’s Fareed Zakaria previously said about Thursday being the day that the U.S. “resigned as the leader of the free world,” Stengel compared U.S. downfall from this as being that of England losing its empire:
Well, unfortunately, America First means Little America, an America outside of the global order. It's like great Britain became Little England. The United States will become Little America. He's withdrawing us from the world where we lead, sometimes by sacrifice and we made great sacrifices in World War II.
Stengel also compared the Paris climate accord to the Marshall Plan following World War II in Europe (yes, really): “We started the Marshall Plan, all of these things. Leadership involves sacrifice. It doesn’t mean just more for me.”
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on June 1:
MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
June 1, 2017
4:32 p.m. EasternNICOLLE WALLACE: Rick Stengel, I'm guessing that it depresses you to hear this already reduced to a political who's up and who's down. This was a pretty important achievement of the Obama presidency.
RICHARD STENGEL: Well, it does depress me a little bit and it is a political decision, but one of the things that’s been wrong with the conversation, what Matt said about energy prices, energy prices are at almost historic low. Crude oil has been going down. The U.S. will be — will exceed Saudi Arabia as the largest energy producer of the world in the next few years. That's why energy prices have gone down. Coal has been marginalized by cheap natural gas. This is why the U.S. economy is thriving and doing better. It has absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump and he just missed that completely and deceived the audience and scared people about that.
(....)
4:36 p.m. Eastern
JOHN KERRY: So he is not helping the forgotten American. He is hurting them. Their kids will have worse asthma in the summer. They will have a harder time having economic growth. He's made us an environmental pariah in the world and I think it is one of the most self-destructive moves I've ever seen by any president in my lifetime.
WALLACE: So, I actually think that — that the former secretary of state made the most powerful counter-argument, and I think there's going — I think Matt's right. There's going to be a lot of hysteria about pulling out of the accord, but he made — this is the best articulation I heard of the economic argument, that he presented a lie, basically to American people, that we have to choose between, you know, pollution and jobs.
STENGEL: Well, he has said it so eloquently, and he said it for the last couple of years, the renewable energy market is a trillion-dollar market going down the road and that it's going to dwarf the old markets that exist now and the other thing is, it's very, very shortsighted. Yes, may there's a few jobs that be lost not but you want your children to be going into —
WALLACE: Well, it was non-binding. I mean, I think this President could have said if there are jobs lost, I'll evaluate it case by case. I mean, to me, what confounds me is the President with some affection for branding, I guess I don't know if I should call it success — that he didn't use it as an opportunity to rebrand the Paris accord. Call it, you know, 2.0.
STENGEL: Well, unfortunately, America First means Little America, an America outside of the global order. It's like great Britain became Little England. The United States will become Little America. He's withdrawing us from the world where we lead, sometimes by sacrifice and we made great sacrifices in World War II. We started the Marshall Plan, all of these things. Leadership involves sacrifice. It doesn’t mean just more for me.
