On Friday morning, President Joe Biden repeatedly fell up the steps of Air Power One at Andrews Air Power Base and nearly instantly, comparisons ensued as conservatives and Republicans recalled the liberal media’s wall-to-wall protection of then-President Trump holding of a water glass and strolling slowly down a ramp on the June 13, 2020 West Level graduation.
For CNN and MSNBC, the ordeal was handled just like the twenty first century’s Zapruder movie. A NewsBusters evaluation has discovered that CNN and MSNBC spent a heaping 50 minutes and 55 seconds (excluding teases) on June 15 reveling within the ordeal as an indication of Trump’s supposed psychological and bodily decline that needed to be additional investigated.
Excluding teases, CNN talked about it on seven exhibits for a complete of twenty-two minutes and 13 seconds. By no means Trumper David Frum began it off on New Day when he stated it was proof of his “bodily decline,” which led co-host Alisyn Camerota to later helm a full section that marvel if there was “one thing, probably neurological” unsuitable with Trump
Dr. Sanjay Gupta repeatedly stated he wasn’t going to take a position, however he did simply that as he questioned if there’s “stability issues” or “numbness in his toes” as a result of there’s “a number of unknowns” about Trump’s well being. Later within the day, he referred to as the ordeal a part of a “regarding” sample relating to his well-being.
The New York Instances’s Maggie Haberman fueled the fireplace, hyping that “there are lots of questions across the President’s bodily health” which can be solely “reliable.”
Inside Politics host John King touted it a couple of hours later, telling political correspondent Abby Phillip that Trump “appeared a giant shaky” in an indication of “stability points,” main Phillip to answer that Trump has lacked an “potential to type of convey info precisely” and so it’s truthful recreation to marvel.
Different offenders included Jim Acosta, Wolf Blitzer, Erin Burnett, and Kaitlan Collins, however probably the most hilarious character was none apart from human meme Chris Cillizza, whom Brianna Keilar introduced on so he may hawk his CNN.com piece “Why the Donald Trump-West Level ramp story truly issues.”
Keilar stated Trump was “dealing with some new questions on his well being” and, for his half, Cillizza cited Trump’s age and the way we “know so little about Donald Trump’s previous medical historical past.”
As for probably the most deranged CNN pontificator, medical contributor Dr. Jonathan Reiner dominated West Level was proof that Trump’s “speech” had “turn out to be very, very sluggish as if he’s struggling to learn,” his “lack of hand power” was “very, very uncommon,” and his gait was “nearly feeble.”
Reiner appeared a couple of hours later with CNN Tonight host Don Lemon the place, unsurprisingly, the hypothesis continued (click on “broaden,” emphasis mine):
LEMON: For years, the President has used assaults on his opponents, his opponent’s well being, unfounded in opposition to them. Bear in mind the entire Hillary Clinton factor? It’s — apparently, she was on her dying mattress, not true. However now questions are raised in regards to the President’s well being. So, check out this. He walks slowly and cautiously down a ramp at West Level on Saturday and wanted two arms to regular a glass of water. Keep in mind that? The President tweeting: “The ramp that I descended after my West Level Graduation speech was very lengthy & steep, had no handrail and, most significantly, it was very slippery. The very last thing I used to be going to do is ‘fall’ for the faux information to have enjoyable with.” Properly, it actually wouldn’t be a laughing matter if the President ever fell. And he did flip 74, 74 years previous this weekend. People have each cause to query his well being however strolling down a ramp, holding a rail, most likely no situation, however now you know the way it feels, do not you? What goes round comes round.
(….)
LEMON: The President is defending himself over his cautious stroll down a ramp at West Level — on the West Level commencement however he’s solely placing questions over his bodily situation again into the highlight….Physician, I needed to be trustworthy. I do not wish to do the identical factor to the President that he and his ilk did to Hillary Clinton. It might be a slippery ramp, it might be steep. It couldn’t have been steps. Who is aware of? I imply, I’ve walked down ramps like that. However possibly it was excessive protection or I do not know what’s going on, however he appeared actually defensive about it. He tweeted out a protection of his regular, saying that, you realize, the ramp was slippery. It’s a clear day. I do not know. However what do you suppose?
REINER: Hello, Don. Once I noticed the tape from West Level, there have been three issues that caught my eye. To begin with, his speech is terrible. He has actually slowed down. It nearly appears to be like like he’s having issue studying the teleprompter and his tone has turn out to be this actually placing monotone. Like he’s actually struggling to learn. The second factor that was odd was — was when he paused for a second to get a sip of water and he struggled to lift his proper hand to his mouth and it nearly appears to be like like he nearly will get the glass to his mouth, type of fails to do this after which he reaches together with his left hand to type of help the glass as much as his mouth. Very, very unusual. After which there was the very, very sluggish stroll down — down the ramp. I do not know what’s going on with the President and that’s simply the issue. We do not know of the President’s medical standing.
By some means, there was nonetheless loads of tin foil to go round on MSNBC with 5 exhibits spending 28 minutes and 42 seconds enjoying physician and psychiatrist. MSNBC began even earlier with the hypothesis because the 5:00 a.m. Jap hour present First Look host Yasmin Vossoughian stated Trump’s 74th birthday and West Level go to have been “citing new questions of his well being.”
Vossoughian dismissed Trump’s declare that the ramp was “slippery,” arguing “[t]his shouldn’t be the primary time he is had issue strolling down ramps.”
Morning Joe gave it almost 4 minutes (after which replayed most of it two hours later) and took nice delight. Co-host Mika Brzezinski stated Trump’s deal with “sparked some issues in regards to the President’s personal well being” whereas husband Joe Scarborough huffed about Trump’s how “photos like this and even his talking potential, or lack thereof…undercuts their argument that Biden is an doddering previous man.”
The Related Press’s Jonathan Lemire went all in on Trump as a President on the ropes: “[T]he matter of a President’s well being is of nice significance to the American public and there have been questions on among the info reported in President Trump’s earlier physicals.”
He added: “By way of the politics of this, the Trump marketing campaign for months now has been attempting to recommend that Joe Biden was not up for the job….It’s completely tougher to make the case once we see video like this the place the President himself is having momentarily stumbles, momentary lapses, and, you realize, appears to be like, straining for a phrase or no matter it may be.”
Perpetually fixated on Trump, Deadline: White Home spent a whopping 12 minutes and 34 seconds attempting to will into existence a sickened forty fifth President.
With Lyin’ Brian Williams and alongside host Nicolle Wallace, their panel had loads to say in attempting to show over each nook and cranny looking for what it meant for Trump’s potential to remain in workplace (click on “broaden,” emphasis mine):
WILLIAMS: The President’s well being was already referred to as into query this previous weekend when he was seen on video cautiously strolling down a ramp after delivering a graduation deal with at West Level. In equity, he has at all times had points with descending stairs and ramps. The President additionally appeared to wrestle to take a one-handed sip of water in the course of the speech. As you’ll be able to see, he appeared to wish each arms to achieve the glass to his mouth and for the document, as a Google picture search will let you know, he usually makes use of each arms to drink liquids.
(….)
TIM O’BRIEN: [V]anity and his inadequacies usually overwhelm different necessary discussions and clearly what’s been raised as properly on this concentrate on his well being and whether or not he is impaired is that we’ve by no means had lot of transparency round President Trump releasing his medal data or his medical doctors talking in a fulsome and significant approach about his well being.
(….)
WILLIAMS: Tim O’Brien, again to the — again to the incumbent, multiple West Level grad final evening on social media simply could not assist it…And this explicit USMA grad thanked the President for his braveness in coping with the — the slippery ramp.
(….)
WALLACE: Till he tweeted — it was very slippery on a day in New York with no rain or wetness or — or, you realize, mist or fog within the air, I am undecided it was a narrative, however there he was, the video’s up now, struggling, he takes one step together with his left foot after which the proper foot comes and meets the left foot. And appears to stroll with nice issue, however till he tweeted about it, I am undecided it might have warranted a narrative in The New York Instances and The Washington Submit print editions at present.
(….)
PHILIP RUCKER: [T]he climate there was sunny, heat, the grass was completely dry, so I am undecided what he glided by slippery on the ramp. I imply, all of us noticed the footage, he did run for the ultimate ten toes, however, you realize, nonetheless, he was so bothered, I believe, by the criticism on Twitter of that video, particularly by the Republican operatives like George Conway and others with the Lincoln Venture who’ve actually gotten below the President’s pores and skin, that he took it upon himself to supply that rationalization, which was not solely in keeping with the information and the truth that all of us noticed with our personal eyes. So, that is what grew to become the information story a day later.
WALLACE: And this is why it issues. I labored for a President who needed to temporary out common examines, none of its dignified when you will have an endoscopy or colonoscopy or a health care provider has to exit and skim out all of the gory particulars….The American folks have at all times, till this level, had a proper to find out about a President’s well being. This President had a mysterious go to to a hospital and Brian and I have been speaking within the final block about simply how intensive the well being care choices are for workers on the White Home. You will get vaccinated, you will get a checkup, you will get counseling providers, you will get lots of drugs carried out on the white home as a staffer, so it’s a must to think about there’s much more out there to Donald Trump. Are any theories about why he went to the hospital earlier this yr and any connection between his wrestle to carry a water glass with one hand and that stroll down the ramp?
RUCKER: Yeah, Nicolle, there are many theories and I am not a medical knowledgeable nor do I’ve explicit perception into Donald Trump’s medical historical past, so, I am not going to advance any of these theories, however there are lots of questions that the White Home has not answered about that journey to Walter Reed.
(….)
RICHARD STENGEL: I — I do not even know what to say in regards to the water glass and — however no, he has no empathy. He has no conscience. He has no feeling for the American public and what ails folks, about what bothers them. You realize, now we have at all times had the President of the US as a type of benign father determine for the nation. That is what we like finest and that is how we would like him to perform and he is simply unable to do this. He is the horrible father. He is the authoritarian father, the punishing father, he isn’t the consoling or grieving father and that is one thing I believe all of us miss and to your level about his holding the water glass, I’m additionally not a doctor or a health care provider…Properly, we have to know the well being of the President earlier than we elect him. Governments derive their simply powers from the consent of the ruled. We, as a authorities, want to grasp who we’re electing and he has been only a field with this. We have to know the drugs he is taking, we have to — he wants a psychological acuity examination.
(….)
WALLACE: So, there — there’s a dialog to have whether or not or not if now we have the heart to have it if he is match to serve because the nation’s commander in chief.
STENGEL: Completely and, you realize, we have talked in regards to the twenty fifth Modification prior to now[.]
Filling in for Chris Hayes on All In, Ali Velshi boasted that Trump’s “weekend wasn’t so nice for him…as a result of the President has not been clear about issues like his funds or his well being and since he’s not clear, it causes folks to ask questions they in any other case won’t ask.”
Giving a play-by-play of each West Level actions, Velshi insisted that “[w]e have had nice presidents who battled bodily adversity however this President can’t have it each methods” in “mak[ing] questionable claims in regards to the well being of others, together with his opponents whereas revealing nothing about himself.”
Williams closed out the evening on The eleventh Hour together with his “Final Factor Earlier than We Go” section that mocked Trump as struggling to drink water and even stroll (click on “broaden”):
WILLIAMS: Very last thing earlier than we go right here tonight, did you see or are you able to keep in mind a single quote from the President’s graduation speech at West Level on Saturday? If the reply is not any, that could be due to what you seemingly did see out of that occasion — the president’s failed try and drink water one-handed and his halting journey down a ramp. The day was shortly branded water gait, G-A-I-T, for the quantity of stories it generated. First issues first. Right here is the primary try on the water hazard. The President nearly will get there earlier than needing an help from his different hand. Some of us who clearly haven’t been paying consideration have been shocked by it, however this isn’t the President’s first rodeo in relation to two-handed consuming. It’s even been theorized that he usually tries to get via remarks regardless of being parched as a result of he doesn’t love consuming water in public, however typically he’s compelled to provide in as he did twice simply minutes aside again in 2017.
TRUMP [on 11/15/17]: 17,000 jobs. Thanks. They don’t have water. That’s okay. What? Oh, it’s okay. Oh. [DRINKS WATER] [SCREENWIPE] that can create jobs in the US. [DRINKS WATER]
WILLIAMS: On the opposite entrance, it’s been stated and talked about for years. The President has, let’s name it, a difficulty with ramps and stairs. It was on full show at West Level. The incident launched information tales about his age and well being. It’s true that at 74, he’s older now than every other first- time period President we’ve ever had, and his well being experiences are famously incomplete….The ramps and stairs factor might be a full-on phobia like his lifetime aversion to germs. Many people keep in mind the Donald Trump within the New York years who went years with out shaking arms and infrequently lectured folks on how soiled a observe it was. He has since stated you could’t be a politician with out it although he’s been attempting to keep away from it in the course of the pandemic. It’s quite a bit.
However in relation to Biden’s struggles, CNN and MSNBC each accepted his administration’s excuse that it was a particularly windy day within the Washington D.C. metro space. As a result of when their pals are in energy, pals don’t cling pals out to dry with such a regarding narrative in regards to the Commander-in-Chief.
