As The Hill TV hosts Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti noted on Wednesday’s Rising, MSNBC has contorted itself every which way to spin the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention as not only a smashing success, but an inspiration and representation of America’s promise.
Hours later on MSNBC, before the start of the proceedings, co-hosts Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and Nicolle Wallace informed viewers that the DNC should make “anyone who cares about America...feel extremely proud” of their “potential” and “vision” for the country that, in 2008, elected a “unicorn” in Barack Obama and can now elected a woman as vice president.
Reid praised the well-received virtual roll call showing beautiful sites from all 57 states and territories, but she used that to suggest that was exclusive to Democrats because “anyone who cares about America and who loves this country should feel extremely proud of the vision that we’ve seen of what America has the potential to be if we let it.”
Reid also made sure to hurl venom in the direction of the Founding Fathers:
That is actually the potential America has always had. They didn't intend to have it. The men who formed this country had no intention of even making their wives little more than property. Like, they were fine with their own wives being basically property. And they accidentally created a country that can have this convention. I'm proud of this country because of what I'm seeing.
Supposedly “not hyper-partisan,” Wallace insisted that this week’s DNC was “exactly what they needed everyone to see” in order to get their “convention pump” in the polls.
“And so if you look at what they needed to do this week, I think you can say at the halfway point and you look at what we have seen from the speeches tonight, that's what they were trying to do and so far, they have achieved that,” she added.
Maddow replied the DNC has helped change how the Obama years should be viewed because “when somebody is first, sometimes you see them as a trail blazer, but sometimes you see them as a unicorn” and yet, she argued Biden’s pick of Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) represented a chance to show Obama wasn’t an anomaly.
With Reid frequently interjecting to voice her agreement, Maddow continued to spout off fuzzy rhetoric about Obama’s presidency and a possible Biden presidency advancing the “story of America” (click “expand”):
MADDOW: And to see Joe Biden himself and to see the Democratic Party nominate a black woman, a woman of color for this position, puts his electorate —
REID: Yeah.
MADDOW: — more into being a story of America —
REID: Absolutely.
MADDOW: — rather than it being the remarkable story of Barack Obama.
REID: Right.
WALLACE: Right.
REID: That’s right.
MADDOW: And the question is whether or not we are the country that is going to elect Kamala Harris vice president and Joe Biden president after we are the country that elected Donald Trump.
REID: Yeah.
MADDOW: And that is a story about us as much as it is about these people as humans and as politicians.
Eye roll.
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To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from August 19, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Decision 2020: Democratic National Convention
August 19, 2020
8:05 p.m. EasternNICOLLE WALLACE: But what I have seen from President Obama's speech, I mean, these will be these really powerful bookends to what we’ve heard all week. Vote like the country's future depends on it.
JOY REID: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I’m in a different place, as you said cause I am a lifelong Democrat. I worked on a couple of presidential campaigns. I did drop the mic after my tiny role in the Obama campaign of ‘08. I was like, I will never go near another campaign again. I’m retired. As a political operative, I do look at it, a former political operative, I can look at it from that standpoint, but for me it’s all personal. I mean, this is a huge accomplishment for this country. Think about the fact that this entire convention thus far, I think, is such an affirmation of what America can be and what it has become and the distance we have come. We're in the 400-year, you know, commemoration of the 1619 arrival of enslaved people from Africa in this country and look at what we have done. We elected a black man as President who then puts an older white man from — I think he's not even — is he Greatest Generation? I mean, I think he’s from the Silent Generation, right?
RACHEL MADDOW: He's born in 1942, so he’s a war baby. He's pre-Boomer.
REID: He's pre-boomer and he picks this pre-boomer man who says I'm going to be second to this black guy and then that guy turns around and picks the first woman who is not just the first black woman but the first Asian-American woman and who’s also got that Caribbean root which I share and I'm extremely proud of that and all our Caribbean folks are extremely proud of that. She has the little Jamaican in there. And, you know, the fact that we could do that and that assembled at this convention was, you know, American Samoa got to show out and all of our — you know, Kansas was also equality showing out and we saw everything from the, you know, the corn fields out west to like, you know, Maryland where we’re, like, Harriet Tubman, you know?
MADDOW: Yeah.
REID: That is actually the potential America has always had. They didn't intend to have it. The men who formed this country had no intention of even making their wives little more than property. Like, they were fine with their own wives being basically property. And they accidentally created a country that can have this convention. I'm proud of this country because of what I'm seeing. Forget the partisan part of it. Forget being a Democrat or Republican. It doesn’t matter. I think anyone who cares about America and who loves this country should feel extremely proud of the vision that we’ve seen of what America has the potential to be if we let it.
WALLACE: And let me just slide back into political strategist role. That's exactly what they needed everyone to see this is.
REID: That’s right.
WALLACE: That’s where they get their bump. We talk about convention bump. It's because of that.
REID: Yeah.
WALLACE: They need everyone, including the people watching over at Fox News, to see that and think that this is our potential. Elections are always about the future. They're never about the past.
REID: Yeah.
WALLACE: And so if you look at what they needed to do this week —
REID: Yeah.
WALLACE: — I think you can say at the halfway point —
REID: Yeah.
WALLACE: — and you look at what we have seen from the speeches tonight, that's what they were trying to do and so far, they have achieved that.
MADDOW: I — I think that — I think that both the points that you are making are wise, both about forward looking but also the way this makes us feel about the Obama presidency, too. I have a feeling that unexpectedly this week that, when you — when somebody is first —
REID: Yeah.
MADDOW: — sometimes you see them as a trail blazer, but sometimes you see them as a unicorn. Sometimes you think, he's the only one —
REID: That’s right. Yeah, yeah.
MADDOW: — on Earth who could do this and to see Joe Biden himself and to see the Democratic Party nominate a black woman, a woman of color for this position, puts his electorate —
REID: Yeah.
MADDOW: — more into being a story of America —
REID: Absolutely.
MADDOW: — rather than it being the remarkable story of Barack Obama.
REID: Right.
WALLACE: Right.
REID: That’s right.
MADDOW: And the question is whether or not we are the country that is going to elect Kamala Harris vice president and Joe Biden president after we are the country that elected Donald Trump.
REID: Yeah.
MADDOW: And that is a story about us as much as it is about these people as humans and as politicians.
REID: Yeah.
