On Tuesday afternoon’s CNN Newsroom, host Brianna Keilar brought on presidential historian Douglas Brinkley to swoon over Joe Biden’s upcoming inauguration, which is still more than a month away. Brinkley enthusiastically proclaimed that Biden “will give a good inaugural speech” and predicted "there will be some, if you like, treats for the television audience to watch," and we can guess he doesn't mean "treats" like Biden mangling syntax or mis-pronouncing names. He suggested that “Biden will probably have maybe a poet, like the way Bill Clinton had Maya Angelou read something that's powerful.”
Keilar began the segment by asking Brinkley about the safety precautions that the Biden team is planning for the inauguration. Brinkley used the question to gush over Biden “leading the charge” on the pandemic:
Joe Biden has been leading the charge about wearing masks, social distancing, reminding us all that just because the vaccine has arrived doesn't mean we're not in the middle of the pandemic, one of the worst events in American history. So he's going to show his leadership that day by example.
Oh how Brinkley’s rhetoric changes from one president to another. Just this year, Brinkley has made a multitude of insane statements about President Trump including gloating about Trump contracting COVID, comparing him to the founder of the American Nazi party, claiming that his tax returns will put him in prison, calling him a “tinpot dictator,” and labeling him as “an abomination.”
On the other hand, Brinkley was such a sycophant for Barack Obama that the Media Research Center gave him the “Last Gasp Obamagasm Award” at the MRC’s 2017 DisHonors Awards. He won the not so honorable award for stating on CNN that “When you rank Presidents on ethical standards, Barack Obama’s the highest.”
Keilar asked Brinkley about whether or not Trump will attend, which gave Brinkley the opportunity to theorize that Trump will hold an event like a “counter inaugural”:
Well, he would become the fourth president not to attend an inaugural. But the first in 152 years. It was Andrew Johnsen in 1869, an impeached Andrew Johnson, like Donald Trump was impeached, who was embarrassed, who didn't show up, went back to Tennessee and ran for the Senate from Tennessee to kind of get back at Washington culture. You might see Donald Trump hold a, I don't want to call it a counter inaugural, but he might very well be in Florida and do some sort of event to step on Biden's message that day. Donald Trump is a media maven. He knows a lot of eyeballs are going to be on television for the inaugural. I'm sure he’s going to want to disrupt it in his own special way, and he can do that by not being in Washington, D.C. But the idea he's going to be a big boy and go shake the hands of Joe Biden and say, you're the President, seems unlikely at this juncture.
Keilar really dug the potshot about Trump being impeached and Brinkley condescendingly saying that Trump will not “be a big boy,” as she smirked throughout Brinkley’s response.
As for Brinkley, his remarks about the “counter inaugural” are actually quite toned down from a few weeks ago, as on CNN he ranted that Trump would have a “counter inaugural” and then “create a kind of second shadow government out of Mar-a-Lago” with Rush Limbaugh.
Now that Biden is the President-elect, CNN sounds like state-run media which praises everything that Biden does.
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Read the full December 15th transcript here:
CNN Newsroom
12/15/20
2:27:31 PM
BRIANNA KEILAR: So just what will President-elect Biden's inauguration look like in the middle of a pandemic? Well, we are getting some new details from the Inaugural Committee. The footprint in terms of crowd size will be, quote, "extremely limited," and they are, quote, "reimagining the typical parade." President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office at the U.S. Capitol rather than on the National Mall, and we're told the Inaugural Committee has hired both a chief medical adviser to keep things safe as well as a team of production experts who have worked on events like the Super Bowl Halftime Show and the Tony Awards. CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley is with us now to talk about this. You know, Doug, the committee is asking the public to refrain from traveling to Washington for the event. So I have a couple questions about that, but the first is, do you think people are going to listen?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY (CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN): I think people will listen. You know, Joe Biden has been leading the charge about wearing masks, social distancing, reminding us all that just because the vaccine has arrived doesn't mean we're not in the middle of the pandemic, one of the worst events in American history. So he's going to show his leadership that day by example. You'll have the Biden family, the Harrises, some of the Supreme Court justices, if they feel like weathering it, and some staffers and press. But it'll be very sparse so we won't have to get into the crowd size comparisons of Barack Obama versus Donald Trump, because this is going to be a crafted event mainly for television.
KEILAR: For television? So how -- and, you know, that's what we saw with the conventions as well, but obviously this is something that more people attend. So how is that going to change the feel of the day when you have the lack of a crowd?
BRINKLEY: It changes it and it's unfortunate. It's just like watching, you know, college football or the NFL right now, when you see empty stands, it doesn't feel the same. However, every inaugural new kind of lore comes out of it. I mean, George Washington’s inaugural address was only 135 words long. And somehow or another Biden will probably have maybe a poet, like the way Bill Clinton had Maya Angelou read something that's powerful, or there may be some way to get some young Americans involved with the festivities, which might dominate.
I'm going to miss some of the parade activity. There's always oddities that go on and -- and great patriotic moments. When Dwight Eisenhower sat in the stands watching the parade, a cowboy came and lassoed him And a could you bey came and to the surprise of everybody there. And you know, Grant's parade, he unleased -- they released canaries in the air. It-- it's always been kind of a carnival and something festive, but this year it’s going to have a more, a -- a somber tone, but Biden, I'm sure, will give a good inaugural speech and there will be some, if you like treats for the television audience to watch, along -- along with the speech.
KEILAR: We still don't know, though, if President Trump is going to attend. I -- I wonder if you think he's going to and if he does not attend what that is going to signify?
BRINKLEY: Well, he would become the fourth president not to attend an inaugural. But the first in 152 years. It was Andrew Johnsen in 1869, an impeached Andrew Johnson, like Donald Trump was impeached, who was embarrassed, who didn't show up, went back to Tennessee and ran for the Senate from Tennessee to kind of get back at Washington culture. You might see Donald Trump hold a, I don't want to call it a counter inaugural, but he might very well be in Florida and do some sort of event to step on Biden's message that day. Donald Trump is a media maven. He knows a lot of eyeballs are going to be on television for the inaugural. I'm sure he’s going to want to disrupt it in his own special way, and he can do that by not being in Washington, D.C. But the idea he's going to be a big boy and go shake the hands of Joe Biden and say, you're the President, seems unlikely at this juncture.
KEILAR: Doug, thank you so much as always. Great to have you on to talk about this.
