MSNBC covered Trump in less than four minutes, and as the president was smearing Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and the press, the network cut him off in mid-sentence.
Video:
Trump was saying, “And if our justice department was doing the right thing, they’d be a lot tougher right now on those people, because there is tremendous crime and corruption on the other side. We need to drain the swamp. We need to vote against guys like Jon Tester that can destroy a man with innuendo, and we have to be very careful with the press, because they do the same damn thing. We love our country, and we believe in –.”
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Just like that Trump was gone and replaced with a split screen of arrivals at the White House Correspondents Dinner with the anchor saying, “And the arrivals for white house correspondents association dinner Washington, D.C., and be careful of the press he says because they do the same damn thing, and a few moments ago he was talking about sources contending that they don’t have sources and referring to the journalists that they don’t have source, and in many cases the sources don’t exist. A wide-ranging extemporaneous speech here from the President of the United States.”
The media free ride is over for Trump. The press is finding less and less that is newsworthy in these presidential rallies, which are nothing more than griping sessions where Trump rants and raves about everything that his angry about. MSNBC has been giving Trump less and less live coverage. Trump survived in 2016 based on free media coverage. If the free media goes away, so does Trump’s free publicity.
MSNBC is listening to their viewers, and their viewers don’t want to hear Trump ramble and rant.
Trump was trying to counter-program the White House Correspondents Dinner but is impossible to counter-program if no one is watching.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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
