The near assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday evening changed the whole ballgame for the Blue Team and the media alike. Now even MSNBC is proceeding with caution.
The "Morning Joe" crew was pulled off the air on Monday after MSNBC opted for breaking news coverage instead.
"Given the gravity and complexity of this unfolding story, NBC News, NBC News NOW, and MSNBC have remained in rolling breaking news coverage since Saturday evening," a network spokesperson said in a statement.
"As we continue to cover this story into the week, the networks will continue to cross simulcast, alternating between NBC News, NBC News NOW, and ‘MSNBC Reports,’ so there is one news feed covering this developing situation."
The decision to pull the show was reportedly made by NBCUniversal Chairman Cesar Conde along with MSNBC president Rashida Jones.
MSNBC YANKS ANTI-TRUMP 'MORNING JOE' OFF AIR FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
In other words, what the network appears to be saying is:, we simply do not trust our most prominent full-time hosts, during this crucial moment in our country's history, after the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on Saturday. They're saying without ambiguity that we don't believe co-hots Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzeninski will be responsible enough to avoid calling Trump Hitler (again), or making (with zero evidence) statements like this:
Scarborough, December 2023:
"One year from now, it could be over. American democracy could be over. Donald Trump, one year from now, could win. He’s told us what he is going to do. When I say American democracy is going to be over, I haven’t said this. Donald Trump is the guy who said it. He is the one talking about executing generals that are not loyal enough to him, a guy that’s talking about terminating the Constitution if it gets in the way of his power. He’s the guy that’s talking about taking off news networks he disagrees with. He’s the one talking about prosecuting and putting in jail people who disagree with him. He’s the one saying that."
And so-called media reporters, like seagulls at the beach being thrown a meal, swarmed to this ridiculously unhinged statement and swooned over the bravery of it all. Not because these declarations were remotely etched in reality. We saw nothing resembling these predictions during Trump's time in office but because the former president was the target. If anyone in the land of liberal news says something provocative enough, it will get press coverage and therefore legs to other parts of the media.
And that's pathetic.
IN STRANGE GAME OF POLITICS, BOTH TRUMP AND BIDEN'S FORTUNES CHANGED AFTER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
His wife, co-host Mika Brzezinski, is no better.
[There is] "one [candidate] on the right who promises to be a dictator, who promises to exact retribution on anybody who made him angry or held him accountable… [there is] "one [candidate] on the left who, again, you may not agree with his policies and his legislation, even though he has accomplished more than most modern, if not all modern, American presidents who endorses democracy, agrees with democracy and wants to preserve our democracy."
Ah, yes. It's Joe Biden and the Democratic Party who want to preserve democracy by attempting to jail the odds-on favorite to win back the presidency in Donald Trump. And yes, it's Biden who is Mr. Democracy by running roughshod over the Supreme Court and the Congress by signing executive order after executive order forgiving billions in student loan debt all in the effort to buy votes.
Great argument.
The near assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday evening changed the whole ballgame for the Blue Team and the media alike.
They can't pull the fascist-Trump-will-destroy-democracy card anymore. They can't attack him personally as a racist xenophobe. Because any rhetoric like that will clearly make management at places like MSNBC and CNN and the New York Times nervous about the pushback given what we all witnessed in Butler, Pa. on Saturday.
Trump is reportedly re-writing his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention to focus on unity. This is beyond smart.
"It's a hard pivot from fighter to healer," is the way former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany correctly explained the move on Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom" on Monday.
Trump was already leading in every swing state and nationally before that disastrous debate for Biden in late June. In response, Biden turned up the attacks by saying reckless things like this:
"We're done talking about the debate. It's time to put Trump in the bullseye," the commander-in-chief said on Monday, July 8, just days before Trump was shot on Saturday.
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The White House has since pulled all attack ads on Trump. And with 112 days until the election, it's hard to see how the Biden campaign pivots back to those kinds of attacks.
Instead, this election comes down to policy differences on the economy, inflation, trade, crime, education, energy, the border, immigration, foreign policy and war.
And if that's the case, Biden's favorite hosts in Scarborough and Brzinski, along with the candidate himself, won't have much of a defense given where the president is polling on all of these issues (See: underwater).
Personal attacks in the most hyperbolic and hysterical way possible is what Morning Joe and the Biden campaign were built on.
But after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt and even somehow had the grit and clarity and character to tell his supporters to fight on just one minute after part of his ear was hit, this rhetoric will be sidelined, at least in the near future.
For a country at its boiling point, this can only be a good thing.
