America’s media celebrates ‘Merry Impeachmas’
The media’s gleeful reaction to Donald Trump’s impeachment may very well help him get re-elected in 2020, commentators argue.
Media
Don't miss out on the headlines from Media. Followed categories will be added to My News.
America’s extremely objective media was characteristically even-handed in its coverage of Wednesday’s vote to impeach President Donald Trump.
Here’s some of what news outlets, reporters and pundits on the left and right had to say about the historic day — which, depending on who you listened to, either marked the end of his presidency, or guaranteed his re-election in 2020.
“You are not asleep, this is not a dream,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow told her audience. “This is really happening. This is our life. This is our country and our time. It is Wednesday the 18th of December in the year 2019 and Donald Trump is impeached.”
Later in the show, Maddow gushed as she interviewed Democrat Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment inquiry as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
Gleeful Maddow Boasts ‘This Is Not a Dream’; Gushes Over Schiff’s ‘Incredible Time’https://t.co/72WZbjvTjV pic.twitter.com/vEuGSfBhIa
— Lola Netty (@TXTrumpette89) December 19, 2019
“Sir this has been quite an odyssey for you including becoming the type of figure and the type of target for — for public opprobrium from the President and his supporters in a way that’s never really afflicted you previously in your career,” Maddow said.
“I know this has just been an incredible time in your own life, in your own career. Thanks for being with us on so many of these nights as history has been made and thank you for being with us tonight as the impeachment articles passed.”
Curtis Houck, managing editor of the conservative media-monitoring website NewsBusters, said Maddow could “barely contain her excitement”. Over on CNN, Houck noted various hosts describing impeachment as “tremendous stain” that will leave an “indelible mark” on Mr Trump’s legacy.
“The President was impeached for one reason — because he deserved it. Because no president has ever done what he did,” CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said.
Rachael Bade, a Congress reporter with The Washington Post, uploaded a beaming selfie to Twitter with a group of fellow reporters partying at a restaurant after the vote with the caption, “Merry Impeachmas from the WaPo team!”
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale wrote in response, “Ladies and gentlemen, your fair and objective press corps in action! What a joke. Media needs to stop acting like they are ‘impartial’.”
Bade deleted the photo after being inundated with angry comments, saying it was “being misinterpreted by some as an endorsement of some kind”. “To be absolutely clear, we at the Post are merely glad we are getting a break for the holidays after a long three months,” she wrote.
Do these people have any self awareness? Any at all? pic.twitter.com/GaLa0lcV9U
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) December 19, 2019
A Washington Post spokesperson later told The Hill, “The reporter who sent out this ill-considered tweet was celebrating being off the clock after a long day covering impeachment. She wasn’t celebrating impeachment.”
Over on the other side of the aisle, the front page of The New York Post — owned by News Corp, publisher of news.com.au — slammed “swamp mistress” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dressing in black for the historic vote, declaring, “IT’S YOUR FUNERAL.”
The idea that impeachment will work in Mr Trump’s favour in 2020 was echoed by News Corp stablemate The Wall Street Journal. “Mr Trump is now likely to be the first impeached President to run for re-election,” the paper’s editorial said.
“Democrats clearly hope the Scarlet ‘I’ will work against him, but Mr Trump will tout the partisan vote as illegitimate and his Senate acquittal as vindication. He will also argue that Democrats and the media never accepted his 2016 victory and tried to overrule the verdict of voters. He will be right.”
Today's cover: The House's decision to impeach Trump could spell doom for the Democrats in 2020 https://t.co/7M4hZYq541 pic.twitter.com/10VMc8Bhha
— New York Post (@nypost) December 19, 2019
Back over on CNN, media analyst and Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter devoted nearly 800 words to recapping Thursday morning’s Fox & Friends — which Mr Trump regularly watches — where host Steve Doocy asked, “Will this lead to the president being re-elected?”
“By then, numerous others on the show had already said yes, giving a President who watches the show religiously some positive affirmation the morning after the House voted to impeach him for abusing power and obstructing Congress,” Stelter wrote.
“Trump could not have produced the show better himself. Numerous hosts and guests said the process was unfair but argued — at times dubiously — that Trump was ultimately going to benefit from it all.”
Piers Morgan, UK broadcaster and opinion writer for The Daily Mail, argues that “it’s a Merry Impeachmas all right — but for President Trump, not the deluded Democrats, dumb liberal celebrities and shockingly biased media who don’t understand that this will get him re-elected”.
Morgan said all The Washington Post reporter’s selfie did was “confirm what has been self-evident since the day Trump won the 2016 Election — most of America’s mainstream hates him and is absolutely thrilled to see him impeached”.
“As with the ill-fated Mueller Report into supposed Russia collusion that never happened, Trump will simply proclaim it as another fake news witch hunt,” he wrote.
Originally published as America’s media celebrates ‘Merry Impeachmas’