The panel of Morning Joe erupted with outrage Monday morning over President Trump’s response to the Charlottesville rally. Willie Geist noted a “pattern” being at work, stating, “There's always this beat, this pause, this wink and he did it again on Saturday where it happened on many sides.” New York Times reporter Yamiche Alcindor agreed as she noted her own experiences in encountering pro-Trump white nationalists at the 2016 RNC convention. The criticism crescendoed, however, with Donny Deutsch, who denounced Trump as a “pathetic, sniveling man” before screaming, “No, he is a racist. He is a racist! Can we just say it once and for all?”
The full conversation went as follows:
WILLIE GEIST: You know Yamiche, there seems to be a pattern here. We go back to the campaign about a year and a half ago when then candidate Donald Trump speaking on CNN and was asked about the support he'd received from David Duke and he feigned this ignorance that he didn't know who David Duke was. There's always this beat, this pause, this wink and he did it again on Saturday where it happened on many sides. He did it again on Saturday where he says well, it happens on many sides where he can't specifically condemn white nationalists. He cannot specifically in this case condemn Nazis, KKK explicitly marching in the streets of Charlottesville. Why do you think that is?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: I mean, I think it's because the President understands that part of his base includes these people and as a result, whether or not he agrees their actual beliefs he doesn't want to alienate them in the way that he might have pointedly criticized them. I'll say I did a lot of reporting in RNC and interviewed white nationalists that were coming to the convention saying they were excited for the first time in decades about a President and that President, that presidential candidate being Donald Trump. Regardless of whether or not he actually want this this to be the case he's benefited from having white nationalists being excited about him and I think in some ways he understands that and is trying to play this idea he doesn't want to support them but he also doesn't want to turn on the TV and say well, my President doesn't have my back.
Because soon even after that press conference when people were wondering why on many sides you had David Duke tweeting out Donald Trump needs to remember that white people put him in the White House. So people that are espousing these views are listening very closely to Donald Trump. But, I'll say this, you said that there's a pattern. I think the other pattern we see in our President is he's very pointed when he wants to be. He's called out the media and said they were enemies. He's called out opponents. He's called Hillary Clinton crooked Hillary. He's always been very pointed when he wants to be. When he wanted Jeff sessions to know he thought he was weak he said he was weak. In this case you see that the President isn't being as pointed. That's why I think it's remarkable he's not being pointed.
GEIST: If you look and read through some of the white nationalist websites and the propaganda they put they were very pleased with what Donald Trump did on Saturday. They said look he didn't condemn us specifically. We understand why he had to go out and say something. They view this as a victory for them.
DONNY DEUTSCH: What a pathetic sniveling man our president is, a coward. You know, it's very easy to use the term Nazis and Ku klux Klan. The Ku klux Klan for decades, they are built on lynching African-Americans. The Nazis are built on Adolf Hitler exeterminating Jews. We don't think Jews should exist on this and plants. That's what World War II was about. Mr. President, can you not condemn those people? Are you in support of that? Is that what this is? It is so disgusting and repulsive.
When you watch him speak, when you could see -- we see him speak passionately. He was almost reading that text almost like he didn't want to. Then when he got animated when he got to the many sides part. Joe has asked me many times on this show, you know Donnie, you and I have known Trump for years, he says racist things but he's not really a racist. No, he is a racist. He is a racist! Can we just say it once and for all? When we look at his history, when we look at the housing issues, he's talked about reverse discrimination against whites, the birther movement. A man who can't stand up and condemn Ku Klux Klan and Nazism and is a racist.
Entirely absent from the conversation was any mention of Barack Obama's seemingly biased statements on race or terror related issues. Nor was there any discussion whatsoever of the Antifa movement or its notorious history in oppressing free speech. Lastly, there was no apparent recognition on the media’s part of their own hypocritical coverage of these matters. The selective outrage at work here is the American media at its worst and demonstrates more than ever why respect for the press is at an all-time low.
This biased segment of Morning Joe was brought to you by Office Depot, Outback Steakhouse, and Ensure.
