Normally, we’re a bit of an NBC fan (or more appropriately, an MSNBC fan) and a bit of a media apologist because we know that their (our?) jobs are tougher than most people think. So this is quite uncharacteristic of us.
But what in the name of all that is holy was NBC thinking when it granted Donald Trump not JUST a Town Hall tonight, but a town hall on the night that Trump cowardly dove out of the debate scheduled with Joe Biden, when Joe Biden was doing at the town hall at exactly the same time? Trump dove out of the debate because, as a virtual debate, he wouldn’t be able to interrupt and lie with such abandon. So Trump pulls out – for the first time ever, probably – and Joe Biden says he’s all in, he will appear at the scheduled date and time to answer audience questions.
What does Trump do? He goes and whines to some other network to give him equal time at the very same time, so viewers can’t even compare and contrast, in order to have the NBC field all to himself, to lie about his content, to dodge every tough question with a non-answer … in other words, have a typical hour to 90 minute Donald Trump fest rather than a debate. We have NBC to thank for this.
And we have NBC to punish for this. We cannot unsee this. We will never forget hearing this. Someday, if all goes to hell, you may have to explain this to your grandchildren.
You will hear about it anyway, so it might as well be here from us, whom you love and trust. How does one even explain this!
Voter to President Trump at #TrumpTownHall [1]: “You’re so handsome when you smile." pic.twitter.com/KgJThAtAQg [2]
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 16, 2020 [3]
What in the world was that? Is this real life?
Oh, yeah. You are so handsome when you smile! That’s nice. That’s a very important quality in a president, especially one that takes pride in never smiling [4]. It is also quite important when able to smile when there have been 215,000 deaths across the country because you didn’t do enough. It’s also nice to be able to smile when you have a plan to never concede or step down. When almost a million filed jobless claims last week. When COVID is on the rise in 39 states. Yeah, smiling is really important.
Nice fcking work, NBC. We don’t know what we might’ve done had we not known just how handsome the man could be when smiling. And I tell you, humanizing Trump at just the wrong time is very very dangerous. He should have been debating Biden, head to head, where his lies and faux smile could have been beaten back solidly by a man with a nice smile, a nice personality, and a much nicer ability to run the country.
Trump doesn’t have a nice smile. He has a nice ability to fake anything, at any time, to get what he wants. Right now, he wants people to think he’s human.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak