MSNBC’s unhinged coverage of the start of the Senate’s impeachment trial went into the early hours of Wednesday morning. If you thought they were unreasonable before, just wait until the clock edges past midnight. The cable channel’s journalists and guests hailed the “great performance” of House Manager Adam Schiff and called for the disbarring of White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
Former Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter appeared at 1:09 AM and hammered Republicans: “All they've done all day for 13 hours is engage in what about- ism. They haven't actually addressed the issues at hand." In contrast, he lauded, “So it's the House managers who have been telling a story, and they've done it very effectively. Adam Schiff, I think it'll go down as one of the great performances.” Alter offered partisan cheerleading, congratulating, “He just shreds the other side every time he gets up.”
A few minutes later, at 1:13 AM, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi marveled at the “remarkably diciplined” Democrats who are acting as House managers.
This is day one. This is the day we were going to see how this is all started to pan out. And what you're seeing from the House managers is a remarkably disciplined laying out of the circumstances, a narrative. The sort of thing that we, who are not lawyers would expect you would see in the beginning of a court case. And what you see from the President’s defense team is a lot of attacks on the House managers, as opposed to, as Kimberly Atkins said, a lot of legal push back or debate over the legal arguments.
At the end of the hour, at 1:51 AM, former Republican Congressman David Jolly came on to bash fellow GOPers. (This is usually why MSNBC brings on Jolly.) He called for the disbarring of “liar” Cipollone.
I’ll use words that Adam Schiff was not willing to use on the Senate floor and that's the Cipollone lied. He lied to the American people, and frankly as a licensed lawyer he likely violated his bar license in the shadow of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Partial transcripts are below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC Impeachment coverage
1/22/2020
1:09 AM ETJONATHAN ALTER: All they've done all day for 13 hours is engage in what about- ism. They haven't actually addressed the issues at hand. So it's the House managers who have been telling a story, and they've done it very effectively. Adam Schiff, I think it'll go down as one of the great performances even though he's in a different chamber than he belongs to. He just shreds the other side every time he gets up. Why is it so important that the Democrats had a big day? If you talk to psychologists, they will tell you if you read a book like "Thinking Fast and Slow, first impressions count a lot more than later impressions. For a lot of Americans this will be the only day they tune in. Right? They have busy lives, so it's a big news event, trial opens, you want to see what's going on. They tune in, one side tells a story, the other side just, you know, flings rhetoric. And I think somebody who would be, you know, relatively neutral on this — and that's not me — would have to conclude that the Democrats had a better day.
1:13
ALI VELISHI: This is day one. This is the day we were going to see how this is all started to pan out. And what you're seeing from the House managers is a remarkably disciplined laying out of the circumstances a narrative. The sort of thing that we, who are not lawyers would expect you would see in the beginning of a court case. And what you see from the President’s defense team is a lot of attacks on the House managers, as opposed to, as Kimberly Atkins said, a lot of legal push back or debate over the legal arguments.
1:51 AM ET
FORMER REP. DAVID JOLLY: I’ll use words that Adam Schiff was not willing to use on the senate floor and that's the Cipollone lied. He lied to the American people, and frankly as a licensed lawyer he likely violated his bar license in the shadow of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
