To match their vicious pre-State of the Union address coverage, ABC lost its mind following President Trump’s first such address, slinging mud at the President for delivering a “divisive,” “gloomy,” and “sad speech” that did nothing to “unify” the country and instead “stok[ed]...racial tensions.”
Chief anchor and former Clinton administration official George Stephanopoulos started by telling chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl that Trump “did not unify that chamber” while Karl swooned that he’s “never seen anything like it” with “Democrats...basically run[ning] for the exits.”
Congressional correspondent Mary Bruce sided with the DREAMers in the audience, fretting about “what they were thinking, as they hear the President talk about this, as they see the divisions there on the floor, concerned that they could face deportation come the beginning of March.”
Senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega was livid at Trump simply mentioning the murderous, illegal immigrant gang MS-13:
One of the things that he said, though, George is that he wants to — have the country set aside the differences and went on to talk about undocumented immigrants as MS-13 gang members, demonizing them. I think he's going to have a tough sell when he's trying to sell unity and bringing up this issue of undocumented immigrants as criminals[.]
Vega also declared that the President was “stoking...racial tensions by bringing up this issue out of kneeling during the National Anthem.”
The View’s Meghan McCain took a step down from her more conservative stance on the liberal chatfest, becoming the more familiar, moderate voice as she fretted that “[i]t was actually surprisingly not as bipartisan as I had anticipated.”
By talking about things like the Star Spangled Banner, guns, and God, McCain argued that “those are things that will certainly make his base happy” but were topics that were “a lot more divisive.”
The always-deranged Matthew Dowd was perhaps most upset, telling Stephanopoulos that Trump did everything but “give a unifying speech” because he touched on “divisive” issues like immigration, the national anthem, ObamaCare, and even tax cuts. Yes, really.
“Calling this a healing speech is almost like calling, going on a diet by drinking a Diet Coke and eating a pizza. That's as much of a healing speech this was,” he added.
Martha Raddatz was also on set to tout her Resistance talking points, denouncing the “particularly gloomy” and “sad speech” that “did not unify, exactly what everybody is saying about not unifying.”
Longtime liberal commentator Cokie Roberts snuck in before a commercial break, noting how Democrats didn’t even clap for the President when he entered the House chamber, but they had good reasons to not clap:
[B]ut he did do a variety of things that clearly did make them angry, and, you know, talking about the national — standing for the national anthem, there were many African-Americans members of Congress there wearing kente cloth — African cloth. The President never mentioned Africa, never said anything like that, so, there was not anything there for them to — to relate to.
Here’s the relevant transcript from ABC’s State of the Union 2018 coverage on January 30:
ABC’s State of the Union 2018 coverage
January 30, 2018
10:31 p.m. Eastern
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: One thing is pretty clear, Jon. He did not unify that chamber tonight.
JONATHAN KARL: George, I've never seen anything like it. Right now, the Democrats have basically run for the exits. I mean, usually when the President leaves, you still have members applauding. He did not unify this chamber, particularly on the issue of immigration. Not a single Democratic applause on his immigration proposal.
(....)
MARY BRUCE: There is an urgent, looming deadline here and Republicans and Democrats are no closer to solving this and, George, you have to think about those dozens of DREAMers in the audience tonight. What they are thinking, as they hear the President talk about this, as they see the divisions there on the floor, concerned that they could face deportation come the beginning of March and what the DREAMers were thinking when they heard the president say that line that will likely be one of the most memorable moments of the speeches, when he said “Americans are dreamers, too.”
(....)
CECILIA VEGA: One of the things that he said, though, George is that he wants to — have the country set aside the differences and went on to talk about undocumented immigrants as MS-13 gang members, demonizing them. I think he's going to have a tough sell when he's trying to sell unity and bringing up this issue of undocumented immigrants as criminals for a lot of people, particularly those DREAMers in that room that Mary was saying. Again, sort of stoking, I think many would say, racial tensions by bringing up this issue out of kneeling during the National Anthem. The headline out of the speech, for me, George, though, is of course, is that “Americans are DREAMers too.” I think many people will see this as clear, concise, and compassion from this President.
(....)
MEGHAN MCCAIN: It was actually surprisingly not as bipartisan as I had anticipated. As Cecilia just said, talking about kneeling, or standing for the national anthem, his commitment to the Second Amendment, emphasizing in god we trust, those are things that will certainly make his base happy, but not necessarily something I anticipated in this kind of state of the union speech. Like I said, it was a lot more divisive than I had originally anticipated, but I'm sure conservatives will be happy tonight.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Matthew Dowd, did the President deliver what he talked to you about earlier today?
DOWD: Well, what I was thinking as I was listening to the speech, is if the president had met with me after the speech, I would say to him, well, that was how not to give a unifying speech. So, let's going back and give a unifying speech. As everybody has mentioned, he mentioned ObamaCare — ending ObamaCare? Divisive. Mention the tax cuts? Divisive. Mentioned a whole riff on immigration? Divisive. And the National Anthem? Divisive. Calling this a healing speech is almost like calling, going on a diet by drinking a Diet Coke and eating a pizza. That's as much of a healing speech this was.
(....)
MARTHA RADDATZ: It was also just a particularly gloomy speech. I mean, he didn't mention the word carnage, but he talked a lot about carnage. It was a sad speech there at the end and did not unify, exactly what everybody is saying about not unifying. The Democrats are there. They represent people in the country who probably feel exactly. how they do.
(....)
COKIE ROBERTS: Well, they probably should have been some what more enthusiastic when the President came in. We haven't seen them not clapping for a President who enters the chamber, but he did do a variety of things that clearly did make them angry, and, you know, talking about the national — standing for the national anthem, there were many African-Americans members of Congress there wearing kente cloth — African cloth. The President never mentioned Africa, never said anything like that, so, there was not anything there for them to — to relate to.
