Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Friday's MSNBC coverage of the 2020 presidential election, MSNBC contributor and disaffected ex-Republican Steve Schmidt fretted that almost half the country voted for President Donald Trump, declaring that they "voted for a statist authoritarian movement with fascistic markers hostile to American democracy."
Lamenting that "Trumpism" will likely continue, he predicted that Tucker Carlson will be the GOP presidential frontrunner in 2024 and griped about the role Fox News and other right-leaning media would play in making voters believe the 2020 election was "illegitimate."
Even though almost half the country voted for Trump, MSNBC had one of its typical exclusionary segments in which both the Democrat and the Republican supported the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden. At 4:32 p.m. MSNBC host Brian Williams cued up Schmidt's commentary:
When I heard Marco Rubio, I guess, the day before Election Day kind of saluting the folks, the Trump caravan that almost ran the Biden bus off the road. You know, you hear something like that from someone who's supposed to be a mainstream Republican Senator -- you realize that Trumpism -- and that's part of what the Lincoln Project was formed to defeat -- Trumpism is a powerful thing. It may be a loser politically, but do you anticipate it to survive Donald Trump?
Schmidt began his rant by fretting:
Oh, absolutely. Look, we have almost 48 percent of this country that's voted for a statist authoritarian movement with fascistic markers hostile to American democracy, to the rule of law that venerates an individual, that's a cult of personality. I think that Tucker Carlson is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024. What you are going to see is every Republican candidate will kowtow to the conspiracy that Trump was stabbed in the back by unseen malicious forces of the deep state, that the election was stolen, that it's illegitimate, I mean, forever. Forever.
He then took aim at right-leaning media and invoked the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as he called for Trumpism to be buried:
More than a majority of the Republican party will believe this was an illegitimate election because they have been poisoned by the Murdoch operation, by OAN, by Sinclair, by the toxic sludge of sewage and crap and disinformation and lies that flows on Facebook into the screens of the American people. And so this is a long-term fight. You know, we have an emboldened white supremacist, white nationalist movement in this country now because of Trump. We see a militia movement that has become part and parcel of the Republican party where it's now standard operating procedure at a political rally to see the guys with their AR-15s. So all of this needs to be sealed back under a sarcophagus of the type that's laced over the Chernobyl reactor.
As Williams followed up by turning to former Maryland Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards, the MSNBC host seemed surprised House Democrats could lose seats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi's leadership as he posed: "A final question about your old caucus. I don't think anyone expected the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi to lose seats in the House, but that is what happened. Any lessons that are obvious to you?"
This heavily slanted commentary was sponsored in part by Humira. Their contact information is linked.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Steve Schmidt, when I heard Marco Rubio, I guess, the day before Election Day kind of saluting the folks, the Trump caravan that almost ran the Biden bus off the road. You know, you hear something like that from someone who's supposed to be a mainstream Republican Senator -- you realize that Trumpism -- and that's part of what the Lincoln Project was formed to defeat -- Trumpism is a powerful thing. It may be a loser politically, but do you anticipate it to survive Donald Trump?
STEVE SCHMIDT, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, absolutely. Look, we have almost 48 percent of this country that's voted for a statist authoritarian movement with fascistic markers hostile to American democracy, to the rule of law that venerates an individual, that's a cult of personality. I think that Tucker Carlson is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024. What you are going to see is every Republican candidate will kowtow to the conspiracy that Trump was stabbed in the back by unseen malicious forces of the deep state, that the election was stolen, that it's illegitimate, I mean, forever. Forever.
More than a majority of the Republican party will believe this was an illegitimate election because they have been poisoned by the Murdoch operation, by OAN, by Sinclair, by the toxic sludge of sewage and crap and disinformation and lies that flows on Facebook into the screens of the American people. And so this is a long-term fight. You know, we have an emboldened white supremacist, white nationalist movement in this country now because of Trump. We see a militia movement that has become part and parcel of the Republican party where it's now standard operating procedure at a political rally to see the guys with their AR-15s. So all of this needs to be sealed back under a sarcophagus of the type that's laced over the Chernobyl reactor.
(...)
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Donna Edwards, a final question about your old caucus. I don't think anyone expected the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi to lose seats in the House, but that is what happened. Any lessons that are obvious to you?