It can be really tough for liberal journalists to accept when their biased reporting appears not to be helping their favored candidate. MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle experienced this level of disappointment Monday morning, discussing a new NBC News poll with Atlanta’s Democrat Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Ruhle was dismayed that the poll found President Trump was beating Joe Biden on two major issues: crime and the economy. Visibly frustrated, Ruhle whined:
And while Joe Biden is improving in the national polls, what's amazing is we've got 30 million people unemployed, yet the president does better on the economy. We've got, in most major cities, crime on the rise yet the president doing better on crime. What is the most important message you want to get across to voters right now?
The Atlanta mayor, who was formerly on Joe Biden’s VP shortlist, urged Democrats to not be complacent and to make sure they vote. Ruhle was still distraught by the poll’s results and complained again:
“Then given the chaos and the debacle that you're referencing, why on Earth does this president poll well when it comes to the economy and crime? We are in a crisis!” Ruhle ranted.
Lance Bottoms shared the MSNBC anchor’s concern. She floated the Democrat-media-driven conspiracy that President Trump was trying to steal the election over objecting to mail-in-ballots:
What's most concerning to me, even as I look at where we are with the postal service and I watched your last segment, what's happening with Donald Trump is that he's normalizing authoritarian behavior. This man is attempting to interfere very openly with election in November...
Ruhle has made a deliberate effort on her show in recent weeks to attack President Trump on these two issues which are strengths for him with voters. She’s snubbed the good news in the last two jobs reports, seeming to root with Democrats for the economy to fail. While she complains about rising crime being Trump’s fault, she’s covered up the violence coming from left-wing rioters in Portland and Seattle by pretending they are peaceful protesters.
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Read the transcript below:
MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle
8/17/2020
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Joining me, the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, Keisha Lance bottoms. Mayor thank you so much for speaking with me. You are set to speak this week. And while Joe Biden is improving in the national polls, what's amazing is we've got 30 million people unemployed, yet the president does better on the economy. We've got, in most major cities, crime on the rise yet the president doing better on crime. What is the most important message you want to get across to voters right now?
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS: What's most important Stephanie is that people remember what happened in 2016 and so many of the polls Hillary Clinton was leading going into the election, and then we saw what happened. And so it is so important that we not take anything for granted, that we don't rely on the polls. That we all go out to vote, and that we really focus on how we get out of this chaos. This debacle that President Trump has presented to us on a platter. And that's what Joe Biden's campaign has been all about, and we can't let up. We can't go into November thinking that we have it in the bag. It's going to be important that we register people to vote and that they actually turn out to vote.
RUHLE: Then given the chaos and the debacle that you're referencing, why on Earth does this president poll well when it comes to the economy and crime? We are in a crisis.
LANCE BOTTOMS: It's concerning to me, and that I can't speak to because I'm not quite sure how anyone thinks that this is sustainable. What's most concerning to me, even as I look at where we are with the postal service and I watched your last segment, what's happening with Donald Trump is that he's normalizing authoritarian behavior. This man is attempting to interfere very openly with election in November. And so it's going to be important that people not just think about themselves but -- and where we are today, but also think about the future and this road--this very dangerous road that we're going down with this president. And I hope that they will peel back many of these issues that are before us and also think about on the way Joe Biden has led before alongside President Obama when we came out of an economic crisis before. When they took office, we were coming out of a huge recession, and he's led us through that before and it's going to be important for people to think about the future as we vote in November.
RUHLE: This week is massively important, but let's face facts. Everybody tuning in tonight is already engaged with the democratic party. They know who they're voting for. They are going to vote. How do you go beyond that? How do you get this country enthused, excited, getting them out there to vote, people who aren't tuning in?
LANCE BOTTOMS: I've been happy to see that many of the polls are showing that the enthusiasm factor is rising with the Biden/Harris ticket. That's extremely important. I have an 18-year-old in my house who will be voting for the first time. I'm constantly asking him what interests him and is he paying attention, and is he excited? So it's going to again be important for where we are today in America, not to be normalized, and for young people and for people across the board not to accept that this is our fate as a country. That there can and will be something better on the other side of this. And again, that's what this Biden campaign has been about from day one. It's been about restoring the soul of America. But what we've seen over the past several months, a restoration is needed but we've got to take it a step further because there's been a reckoning literally in our streets and people are crying out for more and Joe Biden is openly discussing it and openly showing how much he values the diversity of our country.
RUHLE: Speaking of that very issue, Democrats say a huge focus this week will be the fight for racial justice. Racial injustice didn't start three years ago. It's 400-plus years old. So what does that mean?
LANCE BOTTOMS: Well, it's certainly a conversation that I appreciate that we're having as a party. The fact that we recognize that this is an issue in our country. And you're right. It didn't start three years ago. This is 400 years in the making. But for the first time in my lifetime, we're having this across-the-board conversation with input and concern about how we move forward. And that is such an important part of the Democratic party's platform as we go and choose this convention.
We know that there’s going to be a very big conversation at some point during the Bidenministration. Even to study reparations. That's process -- or thats progress in the party's platform. This recognition that we've gotten a lot wrong as a country, but because we are this great democracy, we have a opportunity to get it right, if we elect the right person to lead us.
RUHLE: Georgia is a state that's largely considered a swing state in this election. Do you think Democrats have a chance of winning, and if so, how?
LANCE BOTTOMS: I absolutely believe that Democrats have a chance of winning. The opportunity to take two Senate seats and also to get the electoral votes that we had in this state is an opportunity that I don't think has ever been presented to the voters before. Again, it's going to be about turnout. We saw in our last gubernatorial race how close Stacey Abrams came to winning. It's about turnout, and it's about voter registration. And we are clearly a purple state right now, and if we have the turnout that we have seen in previous years that we saw in '08 when President Obama and Vice President Biden ran, then I know we can take this state.
