While MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s big Trump tax return reveal was a total bust (even garnering comparisons to Geraldo Rivera’s "Al Capone vault" debacle), many took to Twitter to commend Maddow for her efforts to finally bring down President Trump. Here are some of the most outrageous and desperate attempts to defend Maddow.
Fellow MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who joined Maddow during her broadcast, "lol”ed at other outlets for “throwing shade” Maddow for daring to criticize her reporting and whether the story was, indeed, a bombshell it was touted as:
It’s always nice when your colleagues have your back, no matter what.
Brian Fallon, the former press secretary for Hillary Clinton, called the tax returns the “holy grail” ahead of Maddow’s program:
Fallon later backed away from his assertion that the tax return release changes everything, saying Democrats shouldn’t “get distracted by two pages from ‘05 tax returns”:
Supermodel Chrissy Teigen, too, came into the program with high hopes. Teigen declared Trump is “furiously trying to ban television right now” so people wouldn’t learn about his tax return -- even though the White House had already issued a statement ahead of the program defending the information in those returns:
Teigen eventually changed her mind about the momentous importance of the tax returns, saying she, instead, wanted the leak of the infamous BuzzFeed dossier “pee video”:
American Urban Radio White House reporter April Ryan furiously defended the information in the tax returns by saying they’re somehow definitive proof that Trump has been lying about his wealth and is not a billionaire like he says:
Because, apparently, annual income and total wealth are the same thing.
Dana Schwartz, an Observer arts and culture writer, claimed the larger context of Maddow’s ratings plea was to “educate her audience and give important context.” Context for what, I’m not sure:
TruTV host Billy Eichner compared people criticizing Maddow’s show to people who criticized Clinton, because apparently, “while an intelligent woman was trying to tell us about Russian ties u complained about her presentation & here we are again”:
A few seemed focus on the fact that Maddow is a lesbian rather than the actual message of her show.
Nearly two hundred people shared a tweet by DC comic book author Gail Simone hoping that a “gay woman” (which is apparently the preferred term to refer to a “lesbian” these days) could save America:
Dorothy Snarker, a writer for Autostraddle, was just happy that a “gay woman” was being watched on television in general:
Other defenses of Maddow included the notion that Trump only released those 2005 returns because they were the only taxes he ever paid, and a comparison—of course—to Beyoncé.
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