On Monday evening, MSNBC featured the views of two of its longtime presidential historians to lavish praise on President Joe Biden for getting the infrastructure funding bill passed, with comparisons being made to Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.
Appearing on The Beat with Ari Melber just after 6:00 p.m. Eastern, Jon Meacham began his analysis: "Well, Bill Clinton used to say that a President's lucky to get a sentence. Lincoln saved the Union -- FDR defeated the Depression and won World War II."
He then added:
Biden's well on the way to writing his sentence here. This is a significant investment in the country. It will rank, I think, with what President Eisenhower was doing in the 1950s. The fact that we're still talking about President Eisenhower and what happened with the interstate highway bill, I think, proves the point.
Meacham notably used to be an MSNBC contributor until it leaked out that he was secretly advising Joe Biden during his campaign for President. But, even after he was dropped as a paid contributor, the same shows on the network have continued to have him as a frequent guest.
Just under a couple of hours later, as NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss appeared as a guest on The ReidOut, he likened President Biden to FDR, whom he incorrectly hinted had ended the Great Depression. Beschloss began his analysis by invoking President Abraham Lincoln:
There is no way that our descendants will not be reading about what happened today in history books 100 years from now. ... This is what Presidents do both because we need the infrastructure, and also because it helps the economy. Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, made it possible for there to be a transcontinental railroad because he thought that, after the Civil War, the country needed to be pulled together, and the economy needed to be jump-started.
After noting President Roosevelt's role in designing Walter Reed Medical Center, he added:
So in the 1930s, Roosevelt's New Deal was responsible for 70 percent of city halls, courthouses, 35 percent of public health installations, new schools -- 70 percent of those -- remade our country, but it also saved our country because it brought the economy back from the Depression.
After host Joy Reid brought up President Eisenhower, describing him as her favorite Republican President, Beschloss displayed some of his anti-Republican sentiments as he cracked: "Is that like the best restaurant in a hospital?"
This pro-Biden sycophancy was sponsored in part by Chase and Farmer's Insurance. Their contact information is linked.
Transcripts follow:
The Beat
November 15, 2021
6:07 p.m. Eastern
ARI MELBER: Jon, I'm curious what you see in this week in history here. It's very hard to get a sense of it as we go in real time, but when we look at the numbers and the spending history and just how rare and infrequent it is that you get this sort of national investment. I'm curious your thoughts about where this fits in long-term.
JON MEACHAM, FORMER MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Bill Clinton used to say that a President's lucky to get a sentence. Lincoln saved the Union -- FDR defeated the Depression and won World War II -- Biden's well on the way to writing his sentence here. This is a significant investment in the country. It will rank, I think, with what President Eisenhower was doing in the 1950s. The fact that we're still talking about President Eisenhower and what happened with the interstate highway bill, I think, proves the point.
(...)
The ReidOut
November 15, 2021
7:48 p.m. Eastern
JOY REID: Put it in perspective -- this bill -- because it's big. What do you make of it?
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: There is no way that our descendants will not be reading about what happened today in history books 100 years from now. And, you know, you love trains -- so do I. This is what Presidents do both because we need the infrastructure, and also because it helps the economy. Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, made it possible for there to be a transcontinental railroad because he thought that, after the Civil War, the country needed to be pulled together, and the economy needed to be jump-started.
You and I have both driven by many times, I'm sure, Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda and a certain unmentionable President who was sick a year ago and was there for a couple of days. Well, he's not the only patient, but that was public works that was invented by FDR -- Franklin Roosevelt -- in the 1930s. He was an amateur architect. Roosevelt -- believe it or not -- designed the exterior of Walter Reed Hospital -- it was then called Bethesda Naval. And he also chose the site, and he got really involved in the design of the post office.
So in the 1930s, Roosevelt's New Deal was responsible for 70 percent of city halls, courthouses, 35 percent of public health installations, new schools -- 70 percent of those -- remade our country, but it also saved our country because it brought the economy back from the Depression.
REID: This is why -- see, you're going to make me keep you here for an hour -- you're going to lose your whole free time because I could just sit here and do this all night with you, but, I mean ... the thing that's so interesting is Biden is doing like a move where he's also correcting some of the things -- I think Eisenhower was the greatest Republican President to me personally, but he had some problems.
BESCHLOSS: Is that like the best restaurant in a hospital?
REID: It's firm but fair -- firm but fair. But, I mean, he's fixing some of the problems of the Eisenhower era, which was that they really harmed a lot of communities of color in going through and creating these highway systems.
