MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow criticized her own network again for airing Donald Trump’s victory speech on Super Tuesday and claimed it was “irresponsible to broadcast.”
The MSNBC host unleashed on the media outlet after their election day coverage cut away from Trump’s remarks.
“I will say that it is a decision that we revisit constantly in terms of the balance between allowing somebody to knowingly lie on your air about things they’ve lied about before and you can predict they are going to lie about. And so, therefore, it is irresponsible to allow them to do that. It’s a balance between knowing that that’s irresponsible to broadcast and also knowing that as the de facto, soon to be de facto nominee of the Republican Party, this is not only the man who is likely to be the Republican candidate for president, but this is the way he’s running,” Maddow said.
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle attempted to remedy the situation and suggested they “fact-check the hell out of him.”
“Yes, and we do that after the fact and that is the best remedy that we’ve got. It does not fix the fact that we broadcast it, honestly,” Maddow responded.
The election-night hosts continued to hit the former president over his claims and host Joy Reid went on to suggest Trump didn’t age because he didn’t do the job.
“Donald Trump had one job, he had one crisis,” she said, referring to the COVID pandemic. “And you know what you did? You bolluxed it, completely. You did so poorly at managing your sole crisis, the one hard thing you had to do. The reason he doesn’t look old like Biden looks older, the presidency ages you when you do the job. Obama went gray because he was doing the work. Donald Trump looks the same as when he ran because he was playing golf the whole time.”
Maddow cut away from Trump’s remarks in January after the former president won the Iowa caucuses.
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“At this point in the evening, the projected winner of the Iowa caucuses has just started giving his victory speech,” Maddow said at the time. “We will keep an eye on that as it happens. We will let you know if there is any news made in that speech, if there is anything noteworthy, something substantive and important.”
“The reason I’m saying this is, of course, there is a reason that we and other news organizations have generally stopped giving an unfiltered, live platform to remarks by former President Trump,” Maddow said. “It is not out of spite, it is not a decision that we relish, it is a decision that we regularly revisit. And honestly, earnestly, it is not an easy decision.”
She went on to claim that airing Trump’s “untrue” statements live on television hurts MSNBC’s brand.
Trump and President Biden are the resounding frontrunners after Super Tuesday for a November 2024 rematch. Trump lost the Vermont primary to Nikki Haley, and Biden lost one contest, the American Samoa caucuses, to a virtually unknown contender, Jason Palmer.
“It is a great evening,” Trump told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview after races were called in his favor in 11 states, and while awaiting race calls and polls closing in others.
“Rarely has politics seen anything quite like this,” he said.
