Stephanie Ruhle, host of MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, took umbrage at the response of some Republicans to a recent video of President Joe Biden at the D-Day commemoration ceremony in Normandy. In the video, which she alleged was misleadingly edited, Biden fumbled for his chair in a breach of courtesy. Ruhle, in a stroke of expert journalism, proceeded to play a longer video to show her viewers the “full truth.”
The video, posted by the official RNC’s Research account, was simply captioned “Awkward” with a grimacing face emoji, but Ruhle insisted the video was altered to show Biden “struggle[d] to sit down in a missing chair.”
This prompted her to indignantly assert, “You know, on this show we like to say that the truth matters, but only if you see it, so here is the full truth,” after which she played a longer, “unedited” video where Biden can be seen sitting down.
She further defended Biden, emphatically stating “There was not an invisible chair. There was an actual chair behind him and he sat down after waiting for Secretary Austin's introduction.”
Well, the video makes it clear that Biden was all too ready to take his seat before the emcee even began introducing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Yet, Ruhle shrieked, “how ridiculous, how disgusting, how offensive is this, that one of the most important historic days for the world, this is what the GOP is doing?”
The host then came for a “mocking” tweet from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, which she paraphrased as “Dr. Jill Biden, how could you stand for this? Look what’s happened to America.”
.@POTUS Biden is clearly out of step here. Macron and his wife, the First Lady and the entire audience clearly understand when it is appropriate to stand respectfully and when to sit down.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) June 6, 2024
Those who accept Biden’s failed decorum here do so in the way you look the other way from… https://t.co/CsFgnT1pOZ
In fact, Ackman specifically criticized Biden’s “failed decorum” and its negative reflection on the United States during a “sacred ceremony acknowledging the United States’ role in saving the free world.” But to Ruhle, Ackman’s patriotic message was “disgusting.”
One of the segment’s guests, former Democratic New York Congressman Max Rose, contributed his opinion, primarily composed of standard anti-Republican rhetoric:
They support fascism abroad. They support authoritarianism abroad. They’re pro-Putin. There’s a reason why they’re making a joke of this on this day, because they just don't care about democracy and they certainly don't care about protecting liberty and they certainly don't care about supporting our veterans and respecting the fallen. And that’s why I think they’re just utterly disturbed.
Ruhle closed by putting Republicans’ irrational fears to rest, reassuring viewers that there is no liberal bias in the media and the distinguished hosts at MSNBC seek only to expose the truth and facts:
It’s utterly stupid when they say that the media goes after Republicans and there is a liberal bias. What we’re doing is covering facts and the truth and this video and this lie that was pushed is disgusting on every level.
While Ruhle claims to seek truth above all else, her commitment to solemn truth-seeking only seems to go one way.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour
6/6/2024
11:29:12 PM EST
STEPHANIE RUHLE: An official RNC account today posted a misleading video of President Biden on one of the most important historic days. In the video, we’re showing it on the screen, he appears, for a moment, to struggle to sit down in a missing chair at the D-Day event in France. You know, on this show we like to say that the truth matters, but only if you see it, so here is the full truth. Watch this.
[Cuts to video]
EMCEE: Distinguished guests, please welcome the Honorable Lloyd J. Austin III, Secretary of Defense of the United States of America.
[Cuts back to live]
RUHLE: There was not an invisible chair. There was an actual chair behind him and he sat down after waiting for Secretary Austin's introduction. Max, how ridiculous, how disgusting, how offensive is this, that one of the most important historic days for the world, this is what the GOP is doing? This morning I saw Bill Ackman, New York's new $8 billion man, mocking this, saying “Dr. Jill Biden, how could you stand for this? Look what’s happened to America.” This is disgusting!
MAX ROSE: Yeah, they’re sick. These people are sick. I mean, and that’s a word that you will often hear Donald Trump use, you know, trying to talk about, uh, the left and Progressives and this and that ‘cause they care about working people, ‘cause they care about justice and equality. Nah, I’ll tell you what’s sick. What’s sick is when the Republican Party takes a moment, a solemn moment where we are honoring hundreds of thousands of young men who paid the ultimate sacrifice, not just for the United States of America, for the defense of freedom worldwide. They make a mockery of that and you know what they also do? They support fascism abroad. They support authoritarianism abroad. They’re pro-Putin. There’s a reason why they’re making a joke of this on this day, because they just don't care about democracy and they certainly don't care about protecting liberty and they certainly don't care about supporting our veterans and respecting the fallen. And that’s why I think they’re just utterly disturbed.
RUHLE: It’s utterly stupid when they say that the media goes after Republicans and there is a liberal bias. What we’re doing is covering facts and the truth and this video and this lie that was pushed is disgusting on every level.
(...)
