On Wednesday morning’s MSNBC Reports, Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor pushed the view of leftist Democrats who were unhappy that President Biden did not use his State of the Union address to tie Ukraine’s fight for national survival to the fight for democracy here at home.
Alcindor’s lamentations were prodded by host Chris Jansing asking how people in the White House viewed Biden’s performance, “I think this is a key part, this speech, of his reset, right? That we’ve been talking about for weeks and weeks and weeks, thematically, unity amid crisis, but boy, it's tough to turn a State of the Union into something. Does the White House feel like they moved the needle at all?”
Alcindor hit Biden from the left, “There are critics, including Democrats, some really wanted him to tie the fight for democracy in Ukraine to the voting rights struggles and the challenges with American democracy here at home. He did not do that.”
Only MSNBC could think that voter ID laws and Russian tanks are comparable, but Alcindor was not done attacking Biden from the left. “The other thing that I heard from critics, especially Cori Bush on Twitter, was that he didn't talk about sort of African-Americans being killed at two to three times the rate of white Americans, he talked about funding the police and supporting them there but there are a lot of people who I'm talking to this morning said he could have done more to talk about that struggle still going forward.”
Some critics of MSNBC might say that MSNBC’s reporters need work on their analogies.
PS: Brent Baker noted Alcindor also made this pitch before the speech, explicitly comparing Republicans to the Russian invaders:
On @NBCNewsNow, @Yamiche Alcindor: “We have our own democratic crisis here at home” so it’s easy for Biden “because democracy matters and Ukraine is showing that” while “Republicans in a lot of states trying to pull back the voter access to so many Americans.” #SOTU pic.twitter.com/EqmCz2lolz
— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) March 2, 2022
This segment was sponsored by Applebee’s
MSNBC Reports
3/2/2022
9:31 AM ET
CHRIS JANSING: Yamiche, I think this is a key part, this speech, of his reset, right? That we’ve been talking about for weeks and weeks and weeks, thematically, unity amid crisis, but boy, it's tough to turn a State of the Union into something. Does the White House feel like they moved the needle at all?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: When I was talking to Democrats ahead of this speech, what they really wanted was President Biden to give a speech that would hid—that would hit--- heads and hearts. They wanted him to talk about the situation and the challenges, but also leave people feeling confident. And the White House does feel as though the president projected confidence, whether it was on what he has been saying for a long time is the—is the-- fight between democracy and autocracy or when he was being empathetic and saying we're going to try to do our best to get our hands around COVID, but we understand there may be other variants. So, the White House is feeling good as the president heads to Wisconsin, the vice president heads to North Carolina. That said, there are critics, including Democrats, some really wanted him to tie the fight for democracy in Ukraine to the voting rights struggles and the challenges with American democracy here at home. He did not do that. The other thing that I heard from critics, especially Cori Bush on Twitter, was that he didn't talk about sort of African-Americans being killed at two to three times the rate of white Americans, he talked about funding the police and supporting them there but there are a lot of people who I'm talking to this morning said he could have done more to talk about that struggle still going forward.
