Pay attention, Disney. MSNBC has ideas for Marvel. With the news that Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have dropped out, correspondent Mike Memoli could barely contain his excitement on Monday. Talking to Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace, he gushed over the coming endorsement of Joe Biden.
Memoli explained how the Biden campaign encouraged him to be at the upcoming rally: “I have to tell you I wasn't planning to go to Dallas tonight. He has one more event here. We were going to skip it. We were going to skip ahead to California to be in position for Super Tuesday where he is going to be tomorrow.” Memoli enthused, “ It's almost like they’re building an Avengers sequel in Dallas tonight.”
Memoli mostly covers Biden. Reporter Vaughn Hillyard appeared later to tout Buttigieg by fawning: “And this is an individual who got in the race hoping he could be a different sort of candidate, play a different sort of politics. If you're looking for an exact opposite of Donald Trump, you find that in Pete Buttigieg.”
On February 11, as the New Hampshire returns rolled in, Hillyard rhapsodized over Buttigieg’s ability to give speeches: “If you go back and read the transcript of his speech, it’s like he typed it out and he has the comma and everything perfectly because he speaks in perfect sentences. It’s impressive. He's an amazing human being.”
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Deadline: White House
03/02/2020
4:03 p.m. EasternNICOLLE WALLACE: Mike Memoli, I’m going to start with you. You have been on this Biden beat for even before Biden was in the race. You sat down with him today. Is that right? Give me the view from Joe Biden.
MIKE MEMOLI (NBC News correspondent): Well, Nicolle, it's just been a whiplash period for all of us following the Biden campaign. A week ago we were about to release a poll that showed Joe Biden in single digits, with just a single digit lead over Bernie Sanders in South Carolina. And if that’s true, and that held, there were a lot of folks in the Biden campaign who didn't think they'd be around for Super Tuesday at that point. And all the sudden, we are in a situation where the party is beginning to coalesce around him in a big way so quickly that it's hard to keep our heads on straight.
What’s interesting is even just talking to the Vice President in private moments before the interview, there's a focus and a calm around him I haven't seen in him in a while. I asked him to talk about that we saw Mayor Pete drop out, his conversation with him last night. He said he encouraged him to stay involved in the race. He was coy about whether he asked for his endorsement. And asked if he's involved personally in efforts to try and consolidate the rest of the field, whether he was talking to Amy Klobuchar or others. This was ten minutes before, by the way, that word would leak out that Amy Klobuchar was, of course going to endorse and join him tonight. I have to tell you I wasn't planning to go to Dallas tonight. He has one more event here. We were going to skip it. We were going to skip ahead to California to be in position for Super Tuesday where he is going to be tomorrow. But the Biden team, across the board, has been strongly encouraging me to join there tonight. It's almost like they’re building an Avengers sequel in Dallas tonight.
(....)
4:09 p.m. Eastern
VAUGHN HILLYARD: And this is an individual who got in the race hoping he could be a different sort of candidate, play a different sort of politics. If you're looking for an exact opposite of Donald Trump, you find that in Pete Buttigieg.
