MSNBC was still pretending their anchors were at the Republican National Convention during Thursday’s Night Four festivities, when liberal wine mom and host of Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace went off on how the Republican Party she left was “totally codependent on disinformation.” She made that accusation while at least two network hosts were peddling disinformation, claiming former President Trump wasn’t shot in the head during a failed assassination attempt.
Stumbling her way through her commentary about the convention, Wallace took a swing at conservative talk radio and bloviated how the party she left was reliant on “disinformation” and “conspiracy” theories:
I mean, we – we – And we kind of started putting the pieces together about how we got here, we talked about talk radio grafting onto the Republican Party, rhetorically. This is a political movement that cannot – that’s totally codependent on disinformation.
And so, as sort of the right-wing media ecosystem became more – people used to change channels, right? Now they are locked into Fox News. And then, if they flip around, they’ll see how Newsmax is covering the same conspiracy.
But, as NewsBusters had reported throughout the week, MSNBC had played host to conspiracy theories that falsely suggested that Trump was not actually hit by a bullet, but rather sprayed with glass from a shattered teleprompter.
On Tuesday, weekend host Michael Steele cast doubt on the fact Trump had a bullet go through his ear. “If he was shot by a high-caliber bullet, there should probably be very little ear there. And so we would like to know that,” he rhetorically scoffed, suggesting it was just glass, “Was it caused by a bullet as opposed to some reports from those on the scene, other reporters, saying that it was actually shards of glass from the teleprompter itself, not the bullet?”
On Wednesday, host Joy Reid found it suspicious that Trump had not showed off his wound to the press, hinting that he wasn’t actually struck by a bullet:
Congressman Ronny Jackson of Texas…He says he replaced the dressing on Trump's ear on Sunday during the flight to Milwaukee, telling The New York Times, quote, “The bullet took off a little bit of the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy. The dressing is bulked up a bit because you need a bit of absorbent. You don't want to be walking around with bloody gauze on his ears,” unquote. And that's all we really know about Trump's injury, which is weird, right?
NewsBusters has reached out to NBCUniversal asking for what evidence these hosts supposedly had that leads them to peddle a debunked conspiracy theory and if they represented the position of the media organization. NBCUniversal has not responded to the request for comment.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC Republican National Convention
July 18, 2024
9:14:31 p.m. Eastern(…)
RACHEL MADDOW: So, here we go. Next round starts tonight. Nicolle, I’m sorry I turn to you and you laughed.
[Laughter]
NICOLLE WALLACE: I mean, two nights in a row – I mean, to watch you at home is different, I have my mommy water, I have my dogs. I mean, it takes your breath away. Right? I mean, it really – You’ve taken my breath away two nights in a row.
I think the thing that is so important to understand – and I’m thinking back to an interview Sean Hannity and Gerald – I don't know who was interviewing who, Gerald (Rivera) and Sean Hannity were talking. And they were talking jovially about how Nixon never would have had to leave had Sean been around.
I mean, we – wee – And we kind of started putting the pieces together about how we got here, we talked about talk radio grafting onto the Republican Party, rhetorically. This is a political movement that cannot – that’s totally codependent on disinformation.
And so, as sort of the right-wing media ecosystem became more – people used to change channels, right? Now they are locked into Fox News. And then, if they flip around, they’ll see how Newsmax is covering the same conspiracy.
(…)
