Throughout special coverage of the funeral for Congressman John Lewis on Thursday, the Democratic Party hacks at NBC News repeatedly used the solemn occasion to campaign against President Trump and cheer former President Obama exploiting the church service to similarly hurl partisan blows at the White House.
Just minutes before the funeral began, at 11:00 a.m. ET, Nightly News anchor Lester Holt invited leftist “historian” Jon Meacham to immediately politicize the death of Lewis:
Jon, I think our instinct sometimes is to, at a moment like this, a moment of mourning, of memorial, that we don’t want to talk about politics, but John Lewis was a politician. A very – you know, obviously politics embraced who he was. And so I have to ask you, we read this op-ed today in which he makes this passionate call for people to vote, and it comes on the same day that the President is questioning our ability to elect a leader and suggesting maybe even moving the election date itself. That can’t really be ignored here.
Meacham gleefully jumped at the chance to lecture voters to not even think about supporting Trump:
There is now a very stark choice before the country, as there was 60 years ago and as there was in the Civil War and so forth. The choice before us is do we want to be the America of John Lewis?...the incumbent president has starkly underscored for the nation today, which side of history do you want to be on? Do you want to be on the side of history where the voice of the people is allowed to make its way into the councils of state?...Or do you want to be only about power and yourself, which is what the Oval Office wants to be now?
As the funeral concluded in the 2:00 p.m. ET hour, Holt and company returned to drool over Obama’s nasty, partisan “eulogy.” The anchor marveled: “Stirring remarks from former President Barack Obama, who kind of went there on the mirror images of what we are seeing right now in terms of voter suppression and the cause that John Lewis fought for.”
Left-wing Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson predictably agreed:
He did go there, Lester. I thought President Obama delivered a remarkable eulogy that was about history, the incredible history that John Lewis lived and helped shape. But also, very much about this moment. He spoke about the killing of George Floyd, he spoke about the protests that arose spontaneously around the country, around the issue of systemic racism. He spoke about the use of force, of state violence against those protests. And he spoke about voter suppression. Spoke a lot about voter suppression.
Robinson concluded: “It was a remarkable and, I thought, searing eulogy that the former president delivered.”
Minutes later, reliable Democratic shill Andrea Mitchell joined the Obama worship, cheering how he “took it” to Trump:
I was really struck by the call to action you referred to, by Barack Obama, to complete and move on with the legacy of John Lewis. He took it right to the White House by saying, you know, “Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes, witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We witness police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans”....he said that, “Today we are seeing the federal government trying to discourage voting against minorities, against students, closing polling places...”
Mitchell applauded how Obama “brought people to their feet, a standing ovation from all those in the church, for this call to action” and “really brought it home to the current crisis, to the current crisis involved in police brutality, in the protests in Portland, in sending federal troops into cities, and took it to a political level that really celebrated the life and the passion of John Lewis.”
As the coverage wound down, Meacham returned to argue that all the partisan rhetorical bomb-throwing was the perfect way to honor Lewis: “This was somewhat political, here and there, but that’s what Congressman Lewis would have wanted because he was somewhat political, here and there.”
Later Thursday, all three network evening newscasts celebrated how the Lewis funeral devolved into an anti-Trump hate-fest.
This goes beyond bias or even partisanship, the way the leftist press enthusiastically exploited a man’s death to attack their political opponent was completely ghoulish.
The live coverage did not have any commercial breaks, but you can you fight back by letting top media advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such leftist content.
Here is a transcript of the July 30 special coverage on NBC:
10:58 AM ET
(...)
LESTER HOLT: Jon, I think our instinct sometimes is to, at a moment like this, a moment of mourning, of memorial, that we don’t want to talk about politics, but John Lewis was a politician. A very – you know, obviously politics embraced who he was. And so I have to ask you, we read this op-ed today in which he makes this passionate call for people to vote, and it comes on the same day that the President is questioning our ability to elect a leader and suggesting maybe even moving the election date itself. That can’t really be ignored here.
JON MEACHAM: It can’t and John wouldn’t want us to. There is now a very stark choice before the country, as there was 60 years ago and as there was in the Civil War and so forth. The choice before us is do we want to be the America of John Lewis? Who saw the vote as the ultimate form of non-violent protest.
John Lewis never raised a fist to those police chiefs, he never hit back. The one time he ever was aggressive in any way was when Dr. King was assaulted in a hotel in Selma, Alabama when a white nationalist tried to – actually kicked King in the groin and punched him in the face as King was integrating the Hotel Albert in Selma in 1965. And John would tell the story about everything in him pushed him to throw a bear hug around the man doing the assault. So the only time he fought back physically was to hug someone in order to protect Dr. King.
The choice we have is do we want to be the country of John Lewis and the great cloud of witnesses of which he was a part, who believed in democracy, who believed in self-government, and who simply wanted the country not to give them anything but to apply the logical implications of our founding document? You and I live in a world where we think of the Declaration of Independence as a sacred document. It is. But it’s – but it has not been inclusive enough.
And so, I don’t – the President – the incumbent president has starkly underscored for the nation today, which side of history do you want to be on? Do you want to be on the side of history where the voice of the people is allowed to make its way into the councils of state? Which is what this country, in many ways, was founded on, however imperfectly. Or do you want to be only about power and yourself, which is what the Oval Office wants to be now?
(...)
2:40 PM ET
(...)
HOLT: Let me go to Eugene Robinson, columnist at The Washington Post and an NBC News political analyst. Eugene, stirring – stirring remarks from former President Barack Obama, who kind of went there on the mirror images of what we are seeing right now in terms of voter suppression and the cause that John Lewis fought for.
EUGENE ROBINSON: He did go there, Lester. I thought President Obama delivered a remarkable eulogy that was about history, the incredible history that John Lewis lived and helped shape. But also, very much about this moment. He spoke about the killing of George Floyd, he spoke about the protests that arose spontaneously around the country, around the issue of systemic racism. He spoke about the use of force, of state violence against those protests. And he spoke about voter suppression. Spoke a lot about voter suppression.
And you know, he said that if we want to keep alive the memory of John Lewis and we want to honor that memory, then it is up to us to act now and act to about to uphold the values for which he was willing to die. So he called for revitalization of the Voting Rights Act, a piece of legislation that has been stalled on Capitol Hill. He called for an end to voter suppression, called for everyone to participate in our democracy because that’s what makes it a democracy. It was a remarkable and, I thought, searing eulogy that the former president delivered.
(...)
2:46 PM ET
MITCHELL: I was really struck by the call to action you referred to, by Barack Obama, to complete and move on with the legacy of John Lewis. He took it right to the White House by saying, you know, “Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes, witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We witness police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans.” “We no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar,” which was the old way that they would stop African-Americans from voting, even after they had the right to vote, but certainly during all the years after Jim Crow. But he said that, “Today we are seeing the federal government trying to discourage voting against minorities, against students, closing polling places, trying to undermine the Post Office in a year when we need mail-in ballots more than ever so that people can feel safe, because of their health concerns, to vote.”
So he really brought it to the current concerns and he brought people to their feet, a standing ovation from all those in the church, for this call to action. And not just to restore and vote, eventually the Voting Rights Act being renamed – that has been renamed for John Lewis, but to make voting more available, to make Election Day a holiday, to make it available to people, largely lower-income people, who can’t get to the polls, who can’t get away from work. So he really brought it home to the current crisis, to the current crisis involved in police brutality, in the protests in Portland, in sending federal troops into cities, and took it to a political level that really celebrated the life and the passion of John Lewis.
And talking about this 20-year-old man who, just a few years older than his oldest daughter Malia, who got on those buses and put his life on the line, I think captured with scripture, with the political imperative, really the soul of John Lewis and what he means to the next generation.
HOLT: Yeah, I want to bring in Jon Meacham, a Rogers Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt University and an NBC News contributor. Jon, we saw those remarks, or the op-ed, that John Lewis had written in preparation for this day today and all the points that Andrea just talked about, that President Obama talked about, they all came through there. As I said a moment ago, it’s almost as if he had the last word. What were your thoughts about that?
JON MEACHAM: This is a great example of John Lewis who embodied the best that the church can be.
(...)
2:50 PM ET
MEACHAM: This was somewhat political, here and there, but that’s what Congressman Lewis would have wanted because he was somewhat political, here and there. A man driven by the ideal, and unlike a lot of us, John lived, and to his last days, fought for a world in which the ideal would become real.
(...)
