Trump’s act has worn so thin that MSNBC cut him off in mid-rant after less than two minutes at what was supposed to be a tax reform event in West Virginia.
Video:
MSNBC cuts off Trump in mid-rant as he rambles about Mexicans being rapists. https://t.co/Q8PVYKsjfu pic.twitter.com/vk96diIm6O
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 5, 2018
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MSNBC played Trump on tape delay saying, “Women are raped at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. They don’t want to mention that. So we have to change our laws. And the Democrats, what they’re doing is just — it’s insanity. Nobody understands what’s going on. So we have to have strong we have a ball. We’ve started building it and fixing miles and miles of wall that’s already up and fenced. And we’re going to have our wall and we’re going to get it very strongly. The military will be building some of it. But we’re going to have strong borders. Believe it or not –”
Katy Tur came back on the air and tried to explain, “Donald Trump talking about taxes at a tax rant — I’m sorry. He’s at a tax roundtable, but he’s talking about women raped in Mexico, referring to the comments he made back when he started his campaign, those comments that were inflammatory and got him into what was perceived to be so much trouble in the campaign but actually ignited the campaign. I’ve been talking about how we’re returning to the good old days of trump being trump. Here is another perfect example of it. He’s at a tax round table and he’s talking about Mexican rapists.”
MSNBC has virtually cut off Trump’s airtime
Katy Tur didn’t misspeak. Trump was ranting about something that was completely unrelated to the event that he was holding. All of Trump’s public events have turned into nothing but off-topic rant and complaining sessions.
The cable news networks have noticed. Last week, MSNBC gave Trump roughly 8 minutes before they cut away from his speech. This week, Trump got less than two minutes and that was a taped clip.
As a candidate, Trump survived and prospered because of an endless wall to wall cable television coverage of his events. As president, Trump has seen that coverage dry up. When a president doesn’t do solo press conferences or take hardly any questions from objective reporters, that president is going to struggle with visibility.
The networks should monitor Trump for any newsworthy statements, but end to end live coverage of a president who is babbling and incoherent most of the time is not necessary or newsworthy.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
