Yes, Brian Williams is supposedly and genuinely fearful about the future of American conservatism. On Thursday’s The 11th Hour, the disgraced anchor fretted to George Will on liberal MSNBC of all places about conservatism and that “[f]or many years, you were the Republican on mainstream media, before the days where every American woke up to a cable network custom designed to agree with them.”
Later in the show, failed McCain campaign official Nicolle Wallace chided the Trump administrations “dangerous” “ongoing war against the judiciary” despite the fact that the Obama administration remained bitter to the very end about some decisions and most chiefly the Citizens United case.
Going back to the first case of lunacy, Williams informed Will that he had “an elemental question because I don't get the chance to talk to you often” and highlighted his influential and well-earned career as “the Republican on mainstream media.”
Williams complained that this label was unfortunately only applicable in the days “before...every American woke up to a cable network custom designed to agree with them.”
“I think my dad, may he rest in peace, went to his grave believing you were the nation's Republican. What do you then make of the brands of conservatism, whether it's Buckley, Reagan, Kemp — where is that? What has happened to it,” Williams wondered.
Before Williams followed up by quipping that conservatism may have “left the country,” Will replied:
Well, it's in eclipse. It's in exile, you might say. Donald Trump, to give him credit, was quite candid about this during the campaign. He said it's not called the conservative party. It's called the Republican Party, saying which was his way of saying the Republican Party, with conservatism defined in the Goldwater, Reagan, limited government style is no more. I think he's right.
In another segment, Wallace was lambasting Attorney General Jeff Sessions for simply throwing shade at the State of Hawaii when she aired her grievances with an administration expressing dismay with judicial rulings.
Here’s Wallace:
But this went just an influence against a beautiful, beautiful state, this is part of an ongoing war against the judiciary which the Trump team is openly engaged in which alarms — you know, even George Will was just talking about Neil Gorsuch — the sort of one, clear accomplishment of the Trump presidency so far in the eyes of many conservatives, but even Gorsuch talked about how upsetting and concerned he was by this President's and this team's attack on the judiciary.
She concluded that “there might be an impulse to make fun of how moronic the comment was about the state of Hawaii, but I think it's deadly serious that we have an administration hell-bent on attacking one of the three branches of government whenever they do what they don't like them to do.”
Once again, it seems as though the media have been perfectly willing to dish out shade or insults in the direction of the Trump White House, but are unwilling to have it lobbed back at them.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams from April 20:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
April 20, 2017
11:09 p.m. Eastern
BRIAN WILLIAMS: George, I have to ask you an elemental question because I don't get the chance to talk to you often. For many years, you were the Republican on mainstream media, before the days where every American woke up to a cable network custom designed to agree with them. I think my dad, may he rest in peace, went to his grave believing you were the nation's Republican. What do you then make of the brands of conservatism, whether it's Buckley, Reagan, Kemp — where is that? What has happened to it?
GEORGE WILL: Well, it's in eclipse. It's in exile, you might say. Donald Trump, to give him credit, was quite candid about this during the campaign. He said it's not called the conservative party. It's called the Republican Party, saying which was his way of saying the Republican Party, with conservatism defined in the Goldwater, Reagan, limited government style is no more. I think he's right.
NICOLLE WALLACE: And Jeb Bush agreed with that. I mean, even the Republicans who were defeated by his whirlwind upstart sort of out of nowhere candidacy, felt that conservatism can be defeated as well.
WILLIAMS: Is it sleeping? Has it left the country?
WILL: There is an old country music song, Mother's Not Dead, She's Only Sleeping. I think it’s — this is a long tradition, it goes back to Madison and Jefferson and all the rest. It doesn’t disappear because of one election. I think it will be back. But what Mr. Trump did reveal — and he won because he revealed this, is that there were fewer conservatives in the Reagan-Goldwater tradition than we in the Reagan-Goldwater tradition thought. So it's up to us to go back and cause them to multiply.
(....)
11:33 p.m. Eastern
WALLACE: But this went just an influence against a beautiful, beautiful state, this is part of an ongoing war against the judiciary which the Trump team is openly engaged in which alarms — you know, even George Will was just talking about Neil Gorsuch — the sort of one, clear accomplishment of the Trump presidency so far in the eyes of many conservatives, but even Gorsuch talked about how upsetting and concerned he was by this President's and this team's attack on the judiciary. So, it’s sort of, you know, there might be an impulse to make fun of how moronic the comment was about the state of Hawaii, but I think it's deadly serious that we have an administration hell-bent on attacking one of the three branches of government whenever they do what they don't like them to do.
