As is my plight in life, I find it necessary to monitor ALL the news networks. It was my sad task to watch “Deadline: White House” anchored by Nicole Wallace on the day of the 75th D-Day anniversary celebration.
In all fairness I must confess that I respond to Wallace, as a person, much like I respond to the annoying sounds they use to interrupt television shows with severe weather warnings. She has an annoying habit of laughing whenever anyone says something ugly about Trump, Republicans or conservatives – even when she is the one saying it. I never met the woman – and hope to continue such avoidance – but I still take her mocking guffaws personally.
Oh yeah! The show.
Among Wallace’s panel of parroting pundits for this particular program were Princeton Professor and “Morning Joe” regular Eddie Glaude, former federal prosecutor Paul Butler, both Eugene Robinson (another “Morning Joe” regular) and Robert Costa of the Washington Post, Heide Przybyla, National Reporter for NBC and Nick Confessore of the New York Times. The one thing they have in common is that they are among the most strident Trump antagonists on the telly. If the #NeverTrump Resistance Movement were an army, these folks would be generals. Wallace does not let considerations of fairness, balance or even honesty interfere with her propaganda-based program.
As a sidebar, I was particularly interested in the appearance of Confessore since the New York Times recently let it be known that they did not intend to have their reporters appear on biased opinion shows because it would cast doubt on the newspaper’s objectivity. If the editors at the Times had been serious, the Wallace program would have been one of the first to be boycotted. I guess you just cannot believe what comes out of the Times.
Rather than praising Trump’s excellent D-Day speech – as even much of the liberal press did – the Wallace crew dismissed it out of hand as just a well-written speech that Trump delivered without any major blunders.
Rather, they focused on Trump’s earlier interview with Laura Ingraham of FOX News in which he said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was “foolish” and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “Nervous Nancy.” In terms of Trump’s ability to insult, those are just short of compliments. But boy, did the Wallace gang pounce.
Wallace unfavorably compared Trump’s comments to those of Pelosi, who talked about bipartisanship when it comes to military and veteran matters. Wallace complimented Pelosi for not picking up on Trump’s remark. However, I had seen the Pelosi interview and the Wallace production team took one quote out of context and intentionally did not air Pelosi’s other comments about Trump. And as far as not picking up on Trump’s comments, the Pelosi interview preceded the Trump interviews. Nice going, Wallace.
Robert Costa analyzed Trump’s speech as undermining the NATO alliance. He said the President’s allusions to “nationalism” were not overt. Not only not overt, there were none. Trump was accused of “talking more about the nation” rather then Europe of “international institutions.”
I had two reactions. When is it wrong for a President to talk about what America did in World War II and why so many Americans are interred in France? And Costa is just wrong (lying?) because Trump gave a strong endorsement to the American alliance – calling it “stronger than ever.” Earlier in the day, Joe Scarborough of “Morning Joe” made that very point – saying that our allies should feel very reassured by Trump’s comments about the greater European alliance.
After bashing Trump from every conceivable angle, Robinson summed things up by saying that Trump only thinks about himself, not the men who suffered and died saving the civilized world from Adolph Hitler. Everything is always about Trump, opined Robinson.
Ironically, throughout the entire show, none of these panelists said much about D-Day, and the more than 100,000 brave men who stormed the beaches of Normandy. Some 9,833 now resting below that sea of crosses in Normandy, some 33,000 never to be found, and that shrinking number who are still around to tell their tales.
Wallace’s entire D-Day show was consumed with Trump bashing. It was all about Trump, but not the man, who on this day, gave a moving tribute to all those souls – living and dead – that Wallace ignored completely. You would think that Wallace & Co. could have had a timeout from their unrelenting criticism of the President to have paid homage to those to whom this day is dedicated. But no. Why can’t they give up the anti-Trump screeds? Because — as the MSNBC motto proclaims – “That’s who we are.”
So, there ‘tis.
