Going into Thursday’s show trial, the liberal media were hopeful that the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and speeches from Democratic Senators would get the public against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. But Ford’s perplexing lapses in memory, dubious collusion with Democratic Senators, and Kavanaugh’s own impassioned defense had put their hopes in jeopardy. So much so, that NBC Nightly News closed out the program by lamenting that “tribal politics” would keep us from seeing the hearing in the same way.
Disguised as a segment about how the history books would remember the hearing, investigative correspondent Cynthia McFadden opined: “We're not strangers to rooms like this one where the unblinking eye of a television camera has allowed the people of this country to serve as the grandest of juries for over 60 years.” But it was really just a long setup for her point.
She gushed about how Senate committee rooms bore witness to historical hearings such as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hunt for communists and the Watergate scandal. “The nation moved forward having witnessed the same event making judgments about where the truth lay,” she said.
“Anita Hill told such a story 27 years ago, claiming Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her while she worked for him,” McFadden recalled. “He called it ‘a high-tech lynching’ and was confirmed. She was subjected to the appalling behavior of some of the Judiciary Committee members.”
“Today's hearing was held in a room with 47 chairs in the gallery but an audience of millions who will decide for themselves who to believe,” McFadden said before playing up Ford’s testimony:
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: Judge Kavanaugh steadfast in his denial.
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: I've never sexually assaulted anyone.
MCFADDEN: Dr. Ford certain it was him.
DR. CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD: 100 percent.
MCFADDEN: The quiver in her voice, the harrowing details, the tears that nearly fell.
FORD: I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified.
ANITA HILL: Telling the world is the most difficult experience of my life.
After talking about the Hill hearing as if everyone had the exact same takeaway, she touted how “Anita Hill's legacy vibrated in today's hearing” and how it kept the Republican men from grilling Ford. It was then that McFadden shared her concern for how people would view the hearing.
“And there is something else, a nation deeply divided,” she fretted. “Can we at this point in history look at the same event and see the same thing? Or will the tribal politics make the power of the public hearing room vestige of the past?”
NBC was worried that public wouldn’t “see the same thing,” yet claimed the purpose of the hearing was to allow “the people of this country to serve as the grandest of juries” and to make “judgments about where the truth lay.” Clearly, they were concerned that people wouldn’t see the “truth” their way, which is the liberal way.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
September 28, 2018
7:26 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: Finally, on this momentous day on Capitol Hill, many Americans for years to come will likely remember watching the dramatic testimonies from Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. Cynthia McFadden now, with more on how today will go down in history.
[Cuts to video]
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: We're not strangers to rooms like this one where the unblinking eye of a television camera has allowed the people of this country to serve as the grandest of juries for over 60 years. From Senator Joseph McCarthy’s search for communist thwarted by rhetorical question.
JOSEPH WELCH: Have you no sense of decency, sir?
MCFADDEN: To the exposing of Richard Nixon's corruption in the Watergate hearings.
JOHN DEAN: If there was a cancer growing on the presidency.
MCFADDEN: The nation moved forward having witnessed the same event making judgments about where the truth lay. Today's hearing was held in a room with 47 chairs in the gallery but an audience of millions who will decide for themselves who to believe. Judge Kavanaugh steadfast in his denial.
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: I've never sexually assaulted anyone.
MCFADDEN: Dr. Ford certain it was him.
DR. CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD: 100 percent.
MCFADDEN: The quiver in her voice, the harrowing details, the tears that nearly fell.
FORD: I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified.
ANITA HILL: Telling the world is the most difficult experience of my life.
MCFADDEN: Anita Hill told such a story 27 years ago, claiming Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her while she worked for him. He called it a high-tech lynching and was confirmed. She was subjected to the appalling behavior of some of the Judiciary Committee members.
SEN. HOWELL HEFLIN (R-AL): Are you a scorned woman?
HILL: No.
MCFADDEN: Anita Hill's legacy vibrated in today's hearing. Senators careful not to attack Dr. Ford personally in the me too world where in the past year women's stories of sexual misconduct have brought down many powerful men. And there is something else, a nation deeply divided. Can we at this point in history look at the same event and see the same thing? Or will the tribal politics make the power of the public hearing room vestige of the past?
