On Monday, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell and NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss feared that President Trump conducting a virtual town hall with Fox News at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday night to discuss the coronavirus pandemic had somehow sullied the “hallowed ground” of the Washington D.C. monument.
“And speaking of inconsistent messaging or unusual messaging, let’s talk about the Lincoln Memorial,” Mitchell proclaimed during her 12:00 p.m. ET hour show, referring to the event. Turning to Beschloss, she complained: “...to a lot of people, that’s hallowed ground. And to see a cable news program, a virtual town hall, with the President and, you know, correspondents questioning him, anchors questioning him at the feet of Abraham Lincoln.”
The media never expressed such concern in 2017, when the left-wing feminist Women’s March took to the same “hallowed ground” on the National Mall to denounce Trump. During that extreme demonstration, actress Ashley Judd launched into a hate-filled tirade that compared the incoming administration to “Nazis” and singer Madonna shared her terrorist fantasy of “blowing up the White House.” That didn’t stop networks like NBC from promoting the event.
Mitchell continued to rant on Monday: “And to make the whole image worse, let’s take a look at one of the things that he [Trump] had to say in a question from a friendly, supportive viewer calling in and asking him, despite her support for him, whether he should change some of his comments and not be as aggressive and as confrontational as he has been in some of those briefings, and this was his response.”
A soundbite followed of the President arguing:
I am greeted with a hostile press, the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse.
Beschloss was aghast: “Lincoln was treated with all sorts of scurrilous and obscene and nasty comments about him....But Abraham Lincoln didn’t have two hours live on a friendly cable news network, the way that the President did last night....A modern president has all sorts of ways of getting beyond criticism in a way that makes the comparison pretty hollow.”
Mitchell quipped in reply: “Although I do think that Lincoln’s Second Inaugural or the Gettysburg Address will live a lot longer than anything that Donald Trump has ever said or will say – just guessing.” Beschloss agreed: “I wouldn’t bet against that.”
The press didn’t think Lincoln comparisons were “hollow” during Barack Obama’s presidency. In fact, NBC and MSNBC favorably compared Obama to the 16th president quite often. In July of 2016, Mitchell herself suggested Obama was the best speech writer since Lincoln. Not to mention some of these comments from her colleagues over the years:
David Gregory Asks Obama 'Is This Your Lincoln Moment?'
Ed Schultz Morphs Abraham Lincoln Into Barack Obama
Scarborough: Obama Is The Most Significant President Since Lincoln, Would Vote For Him If He Could
Wrapping up the segment minutes later, Mitchell lamented: “But last night at the Lincoln Memorial, it certainly was an extraordinary moment, an extraordinary image in that space, to be having a town meeting.”
Mitchell and the rest of the media didn’t have a problem with vile left-wing rhetoric on the National Mall or a Democratic president being compared to Lincoln, but now they are scandalized by Trump simply visiting a national monument to answer questions from voters and journalists.
Here is a transcript of the May 4 MSNBC segment:
12:21 PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: And speaking of inconsistent messaging or unusual messaging, let’s talk about the Lincoln Memorial. Michael Beschloss, to a lot of people, that’s hallowed ground. And to see a cable news program, a virtual town hall, with the President and, you know, correspondents questioning him, anchors questioning him at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. And to
make the whole image worse, let’s take a look at one of the things that he had to say in a question from a friendly, supportive viewer calling in and asking him, despite her support for him, whether he should change some of his comments and not be as aggressive and as confrontational as he has been in some of those briefings, and this was his response.DONALD TRUMP: I am greeted with a hostile press, the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse.
MITCHELL: Michael, how did that strike you?
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Well, what I really thought, Andrea, was when he said nobody got treated worse than Lincoln, today is by happenstance 155 years since the day that Abraham Lincoln was buried in Springfield, you know, one of the great cases of a great leader giving his life for his cause. And the other thing is, yes, Lincoln was treated with all sorts of scurrilous and obscene and nasty comments about him. Some of them I couldn’t even repeat on this program. But Abraham Lincoln didn’t have two hours live on a friendly cable news network, the way that the President did last night. Abraham Lincoln didn't have a briefing every day, which the President did, for at least a while, that went up sometimes over two hours. A modern president has all sorts of ways of getting beyond criticism in a way that makes the comparison pretty hollow.
MITCHELL: Although I do think that Lincoln’s Second Inaugural or the Gettysburg Address will live a lot longer than anything that Donald Trump has ever said or will say – just guessing.
BESCHLOSS: I wouldn’t bet against that.
(...)
12:26 PM
MITCHELL: But last night at the Lincoln Memorial, it certainly was an extraordinary moment, an extraordinary image in that space, to be having a town meeting. And one still doesn’t know, you know, what about all of the National Park and other security people who had to be out there, out during a pandemic, in a shutdown, where D.C. is still rising in its infection rates. Thanks, anyway, to you, Michael Beschloss, for joining us today.
(...)
