MSNBC host Rachel Maddow interrupted her in-person interview with failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Thursday night to air a 2-year-old video of a sneezing panda.
That, frankly, may be one of the weirdest opening lines of any blog I’ve ever written.
The super-bizarre moment happened Thursday night when, for no explicable reason, Maddow returned from a commercial break and momentarily delayed her continuing interview with Clinton to show viewers a viral video of a sneezing baby panda bear. Not only was the moment completely weird and jarringly out of sync with the rest of the show – the video isn’t even new, having been viewed hundreds of millions of times on social media since it was first uploaded to YouTube in early 2016.
The only thing I can figure is that MSNBC needed something cutesy to offset Hillary's cackle, hastily googled "adorable animal vids" and grabbed the first random clip they could find.
"Here, Frank! Plug this in right after the Verizon commercial -- it'll help with the nausea!"
Here was the wacky moment, presented without further comment.