***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
The evening after dueling addresses from President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders, NBC Nightly News’ Wednesday coverage of the government shutdown was distinctly stacked against the President. Anchor Lester Holt announced as much as he stood outside the Capitol and declared: “We have come here to frame the crisis rocking America. Not the one the President speaks of at the southern border, but the crisis of dysfunction here in Washington …” But NBC’s only focus was Trump.
After noting it was a “crisis around kitchen tables” for families of federal workers, Holt put the blame on the President who had walked out of a meeting when Democrats refused to negotiate on the wall. And for all of Holt’s talk about “the crisis of dysfunction here in Washington”, there was not one critical remark or soundbite about Democrats from non-politicians.
“A day after the President's primetime appeal for border wall funding, his face-to-face meeting with Democratic leaders here ended in disappointment. The President walking out,” Holt bemoaned before suggesting the President’s support was crumbling. “And with cracks beginning to emerge of support from his own Republican Party, the President still holds a final card, declaring a national emergency.”
After a report on the sour meeting, Holt moved on to hyping moderate Republicans who were starting the break with Trump. “As the shutdown drags on tonight, there may be signs of cracks among Republican members of Congress, particularly among vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2020,” he noted before playing soundbites from his interview with Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins.
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