00:00:00.140Ronna McDaniel. Well, she was on Sunday's Meet the Press. It was her first appearance since NBC News hired her as a political analyst.
00:00:10.180I know you won't be surprised to know that we've been inundated with calls this weekend, as have most people connected with this network, about NBC's decision to hire her.
00:00:21.820We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday. We weren't asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons, including, but not limited to, as lawyers might say, Ms. McDaniel's role in Donald Trump's fake elector scheme and her pressuring election officials to not certify election results while Donald Trump was on the phone.
00:00:49.780To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage, but it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.
00:01:09.580And we hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on Morning Joe in her capacity as a paid contributor.
00:01:21.220Did Joe Biden win the election fair and square?
00:01:23.340He won. He's the legitimate president.
00:01:25.480Fair and square, he won. It's certified. It's done.
00:01:28.380John, it's not ideology. It's not ideology.
00:01:32.360There are a lot of conservative Republicans that serve for Donald Trump that I disagree with, but, but they stood up on January the 6th.
00:01:46.120They spoke out. I mean, it's this inverted pyramid. And again, taking one for the team, it's such a clarifying statement.
00:01:56.140I, yeah, you know, one thing I've been struggling with, John, and I know you have too, I've been struggling really, really hard, and Mika will tell you this, for years, but especially as we're moving into this new election cycle,
00:02:09.300I'm trying to understand a lot of people that I grew up with in the church, a lot of people who are unrecognizable now when you talk politics, because I'll tell you the team, I guess it's how we define the team.
00:02:26.200For me, the team, it's a pyramid. It's God, country, constitution. For me, conservatism. For others, it's being progressive. It's liberalism.
00:02:42.440And, and that's how it goes. Politicians and parties, for me, have always been at the bottom of, of, of that, that list.
00:02:56.920And for some reason, it's been inverted. So instead of God, country, constitution, conservatism, and then politicians and party, it's been inverted. And now it is Donald Trump.
00:03:14.840It's Donald Trump. And everything flows from that. So when, I guess I shouldn't, when I hear that, I, I, again, it's very clarifying. I guess I should, I guess I shouldn't be staying up, trying to figure out what happened to them.
00:03:34.760This is what happened to them. They, they, they completely, their value system flipped. And Donald Trump's on top. And everything that's done goes through that filter. And everything is justified. Everything he does is justified. Political violence is justified. His lifestyle is justified. His hatred is justified. His racism is justified.
00:03:58.500All the things my friends would have justified. All the things my friends would have spoken out about when I was growing up, when Bill Clinton was president, when they were so shocked and stunned and deeply saddened by Bill Clinton. Now, the pyramid is flipped. And instead of God on the top and then country and constitution and conservatism, it is Donald Trump. And everything's inverted in the opposite direction.
00:04:24.860And I suppose all in pursuit of power, shards of glass inside media is 12 splintering realities though. Of course, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps this may be a bit relevant, but I, but it is important to note that we, you are right. We have so many outlets out there. We've got podcasts. We've got social media often, you know, producing sound and
00:04:54.760fury that's fury that signifies nothing, but it's not just the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, et cetera, et cetera. You even look at Fox News who lost a great deal of their audience after the 2020 election for, for a fairly short while for simply giving their viewers the election results for simply saying Joe Biden won. A lot of them left for Newsmax, left for other conservative networks.
00:05:22.760So it seems that people on the left will find, uh, find their media outlets. Uh, and it, it's caused this blendering as you've said. Yeah, there, no doubt. Like the, and you think about it, like the shattering has been taking place for years, but I think it's fully broken now. And I think a good example is Fox news.
00:05:46.760Fox news four years ago, if you kind of wanted to know what Trump thought or what kind of most Republicans who are going to vote thought you can reliably go to Fox news. And that might be it. The truth is, if you really want to know what Trump thinks or what a Trump supporter thinks, you're probably going to go to Steve Bannon's podcast or Charlie Kirk, or go follow the, the, the social media feed of Donald Trump Jr.
00:06:09.760or go to true social places that most people, unless you're a real Trump or you're never going to go. So you're not even going to understand the reality through the prism of where we would have looked at it a couple of years ago.
00:06:21.680Or you just read from a wall street journal, conservative editorial page, editorial that used to be where you would figure out what conservatives thought. That's now a very, very slim part of the Republican party. It's kind of the Mitt Romney part of the party and more sort of the conventional conservative. And that's just in the political sphere. You could be sitting at a table with a group of people and you might never really interact with their reality. It might be somebody who gets most of their news from an influencer.
00:06:49.920They trust on Instagram, or you could have a kid to your right. Who's, who's following people on Tik TOK that you and I would think are aliens or names we've never heard of. And they're ingesting this content five, six hours a day. And I think it just makes it that much harder to really understand for a lot of people, just like what's real. And something's really hot in my area or other people paying attention to it.
00:07:11.220Well, what about this idea that the 2020 election was stolen? You think that these companies should allow people to say that and individuals can make up their own mind and that there should be-
00:07:23.220I think the American people are smart. Look, I've not said that. What I've said is there were concerns about the 2020 election. I think Americans agree with that.
00:07:31.220No, they don't. You don't think they think there were concerns with the 2020 election?
00:07:35.220Most people don't question the result. That's all I'm saying. They don't question whether Biden won or not. Right? Right?
00:07:47.220Yeah. And let's just dig into some of the issues that could turn this race looking ahead in these two states. First of all, on abortion and democracy, these are the two issues where Biden has an advantage. The only two issues where Biden has an advantage in both states.
00:08:09.220Then you look at other issues, U.S. and world affairs, economy, immigration, Israel, Gaza. Trump has an advantage. And it's actually-
00:08:19.220If you look at the Israel-Gaza question, the fact that Trump has a 20-point advantage in Michigan, I mean, the world is upside down.