MSNBC host explains break from CNN

Nicolle Wallace explains her network's decision not to air Trump's immigration announcement

Published November 3, 2018 4:29PM (EDT)

Nicolle Wallace       (ABC)
Nicolle Wallace (ABC)

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

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When President Donald Trump told the media Thursday that he had a major announcement on immigration policy to deliver from the White House's Roosevelt Room, Fox News, unsurprisingly, decided to air the speech live. CNN, too, believing that Trump was taking a major step as president chose to air it live.

MSNBC, on the other hand, did not. Instead, it aired Nicolle Wallace's show "Deadline: White House," where she explained the decision.

"Donald Trump makes remarks this hour from the Roosevelt Room," she said. "We will monitor those, keeping in mind that they're being made in the closing days before voters go to the polls. We're going to fact-check the president's remarks — and then bring you any major news that comes out of the White House."

It turned out to be a wise decision. Trump didn't break any news in his speech Thursday — he simply engaged in his usual fire-breathing rhetoric about immigration and attacked his opponents, while saying that an announcement about asylum policy would be coming soon. Rather than giving the nation information, he lied repeatedly and egregiously at length — clearly exploiting his position as president in a desperate effort to get his midterm message out

It was a classic Trump fake-out — promising the media one thing and delivering lies and demagoguery instead. It's about time other media outlets start following MSNBC's lead to avoid getting played.

Watch the clip below:


By Cody Fenwick

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