On Thursday night’s episode of The Last Word, NBC News National Affairs Analyst John Heilemann, blamed the recent coronavirus spikes on President Trump, by claiming he wants to make the virus about a “culture war.” Heilemann cherry picked data and put the blame entirely on Trump. Essentially, the network is trying to use the virus to try and torpedo the President's reelection.
Heilemann made sure to only focus on Trump, rather than focus on policy, when describing the coronavirus spikes:
And out of that grew this red/blue divide where the culture war that Donald Trump wanted to ferment. He said over here is the liberals who are wearing the masks and we good freedom loving Americans don't do that.
This rhetoric is being used to further divide our nation more than it already is, and MSNBC and NBC News are doing everything in their power to push for this divide. MSNBC paints this narrative that Americans in red states are not wearing masks, because they believe that it infringes on their freedoms. They are trying so hard to push that President Trump is inciting this “culture war,” when in reality it is networks like MSNBC that push narratives created to make Democrats and Republicans feel more distant from each other.
Eighty percent of Americans wear masks at least some of the time, where only seven percent of Americans have never worn a mask. MSNBC’s categorizing of “freedom loving Americans” in red states not wearing masks is completely dishonest and divisive.
It is important to note Heinemann’s false categorization of California only being hit early by coronavirus, when they are currently seeing spikes:
…you know, you saw the geographic split, right, where it was mostly blue states in blue cities, places like New York, California, Washington state, that were affected by coronavirus.
On June 23, 2020 California reached their all-time high of coronavirus cases in one day, with 7,149 positive cases, with a total of 200,461 total confirmed positive cases. To put this in perspective, Texas and Florida both have had lower one-day case peaks, as well as total positive cases. MSNBC’s focus has been entirely shifted to covering red states like Texas and Florida, when California, a blue state, is doing worse. Trump is not the one trying to create this “culture war,” it is the dishonest liberal media trying to take down the President.
Click "expand" for the transcript:
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
06/25/2020
10:16:38
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: And, John Heilemann, we're showing on the screen there today Texas another record high day for coronavirus infections in Texas. And Donald Trump basically polling in a tie in Texas. Joe Biden one point ahead. Those two things are related. And if things get worse and worse in Texas with the coronavirus, who knows what happens to the presidential campaign polling.
JOHN HEILEMANN (NBC NEWS NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST): Right. I mean, Lawrence, one of the things that's true is that, you know, three months ago at the beginning in the first peak of the first wave, you know, you saw the geographic split, right, where it was mostly blue states in blue cities, places like New York, California, Washington state, that were affected by coronavirus.And out of that grew this red/blue divide where the culture war that Donald Trump wanted to ferment. He said over here is the liberals who are wearing the masks and we good freedom loving Americans don't do that. That was an easy political division to try to sew and ride when most of red America hadn't been affected by coronavirus.
We all said three months ago, what's going to happen to the politics once this gets to red America, which it will inevitably for the reasons that Doctor Redlener said and others. We all wondered, it would make things more complicated for Donald Trump, and that's exactly what we're seeing now, right, whether in Tulsa, in Oklahoma, in the Texas example you gave in battleground states like Arizona where the easy cheap politics that Trump was -- is a master of and that he was indulging in for the last three months, suddenly starting to look incredibly foolish because even the Republicans in those states are looking at him and saying, this is ridiculous the way you're behaving and we care more about your life than we do about some culture war you want to wage, and that is going to hurt him politically in a lot of states including some places, that are, that would normally be considered safe for a Republican like places like Texas.
