Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday morning to review President Trump’s State of the Union address, Chief Political Analyst Matthew Dowd worried that he “didn’t get any sense there was any room for compromise” in the speech and even proclaimed that the nation was as divided today as it was during the Civil War.
Clumsily citing a rare lunar phenomenon, Dowd warned: “I was thinking as we were leading in about this is the big – the bad blood moon that’s out – the blue blood moon, I think what it is. The last time it was visible in the United States was in the 1860s and I think we are as divided now as we were then, back when that rose the last time in the United States.”'
Before the speech even aired Tuesday night, Dowd was already declaring that “this country is as divided as it’s ever been in our history.”
If Dowd’s Civil War comparison sounds familiar, that’s because he made the same absurd assertion a year ago, on the morning of Donald Trump’s Inauguration. At the time, he fretted: “I am struck by where the country is today which to me it's much more akin to where we were in 1861 and how divided the country is.”
At least on Wednesday he noted that Democrats shared some of the blame for the division:
I think the President, and even, I think, the Democrats would be – it would be smart of them to look at what Lincoln said in 1862, his first joint session speech, where he said, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present. The pile of difficulties we must all meet at this occasion.” I think both parties need to get out of the trench warfare and figure out a way to come together and solve these problems.
Perhaps Dowd should keep his hyperbolic historical references to himself from now on.
Here is a transcript of the January 31 exchange:
7:14 AM ET
(...)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS Let’s talk about the speech some more now. Matthew Dowd, you were back in the Oval Office yesterday, of course, you used to work for president George W. Bush. But you met with President Trump yesterday and he said something to you similar to what he was telling network anchors, that he hoped this would be a unifying speech.
MATTHEW DOWD: Yeah, he had – he related in the course of the conversation how he thought he was going to compromise on immigration and that the Democrats were gonna meet him. And obviously reading that speech, you didn’t get any sense there was any room for compromise in that.
I was thinking as we were leading in about this is the big – the bad blood moon that's out – the blue blood moon, I think what it is.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It’s rising, yeah. [Laughter]
DOWD: The last time it was visible in the United States was in the 1860s and I think we are as divided now as we were then, back when that rose the last time in the United States.
I think the President, and even, I think, the Democrats would be – it would be smart of them to look at what Lincoln said in 1862, his first joint session speech, where he said, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present. The pile of difficulties we must all meet at this occasion.” I think both parties need to get out of the trench warfare and figure out a way to come together and solve these problems.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Boy, it doesn’t feel like it’s gonna happen any time soon. And, Mary, last night on immigration, it sure doesn’t look like a deal is possible before that deadline next week.
BRUCE: No, certainly not a deal done, tied up with a bow, ready to go by next Thursday. They may get closer. And you heard the President last night say that what he’s put on the table is a fair compromise. That is not how Democrats see it. That’s not even how many Republicans see it. You have this looming deadline coming and they don’t really seem to be any closer to finally getting this done. And, George, you have to think about all those Dreamers that were in the audience last night listening to the President, concerned about their fate, whether they could be facing deportation ultimately.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And the president said that could happen as soon as March 5th. Okay, thank you both very much.
