Tag: savannah guthrie
Endorse This: Raising Your Hand For Trump

Endorse This: Raising Your Hand For Trump

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Come on, what could possibly be wrong with getting tens of thousands of people to raise their right hands to declare allegiance to an authoritarian political personality?

Donald Trump is now taking questions on the newest practice at his campaign events, where he asks the audience to all raise their hands and make a pledge to go out and vote for him on primary day. The problem: Lots of people think this whole display looks just like one of the Nuremberg Rallies. (To be somewhat fair, The Donald specifically puts up his own hand in the manner of a person making an oath in court — while all the people the audience are just raising their arms straight into the air.)

“I wonder how you feel about that comparison,” asked Savannah Guthrie, “and whether it would make you want to perhaps not do it anymore, if people do feel that way?”

Trump’s response was both a profession of his innocence — and less than comforting in its deadpan delivery.

“Well I think it’s ridiculous. I mean, we’re having such a great time. Yesterday I had 20,000 people in Mississippi, I had tremendous crowds in Michigan,” Trump said, with apparently no sense of awareness.

“And sometimes we’ll do it for fun — and they’ll start screaming at me, ‘Do the swear-in! Do the swear-in!’ I mean, they’re having such a great time. They’re massive crowds. I get by far the biggest crowds, and we’re having a good time. Honestly, until this phone call I didn’t know it was a problem.”

As the questions continued, The Donald further explained: “If it’s offensive or if there’s anything wrong with it, I wouldn’t do it. But when I say, ‘Raise your hand,’ everybody raises their hand. They’re screaming to me to do it, ‘We want to do it!’ and we’re all having a lot of fun.”

However, we wish to offer an alternative comparison for the sight of Trump having his vast crowds awkwardly recite back a pledge of support for him: The scene in that great American classic Blazing Saddles, when the corrupt political boss Hedley Lamarr had his vast army of dimwitted Wild West criminals (which, yes, included a few anachronistic Nazis) pledge allegiance to him — and to the evil for which he stands!

“Now repeat after me: ‘I…'”

“I—”

“‘Your name…'”

“Your name—”

“Schmucks.”

Video viaToday/NBC News.

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Endorse This: Sarah Palin Further Embarrasses Herself On Caucus Day

Endorse This: Sarah Palin Further Embarrasses Herself On Caucus Day

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Sarah Palin appeared on TV this morning to promote Donald Trump, on the big day of the Iowa caucuses. But then she got asked about the most news-making quote she’s delivered while stumping for The Donald: That President Obama was to blame for her son’s arrest on domestic violence charges, because the troops get post-traumatic stress disorder after they have to “look at him and wonder” whether or not he supports them.

Palin’s answer: No, she didn’t say that at all — and shame on you for talking about it!

“You guys brought me here to talk about Iowa politics, and the caucus tonight — not to talk about my kids,” said Palin, who was actually the one that first talked about her kids while on the campaign trail. “And that was a promise. But as things go in the world of media, you guys don’t always keep your promises, evidently.”

Palin went on to say maintain that she didn’t make any such accusation against Obama, but simultaneously insisted that he doesn’t support the troops. Matt Lauer then asked her if she wanted to take back anything she said that was offensive.

“What did I say that is offensive?” she retorted. “I don’t regret any comment that I made, because I didn’t lay PTSD at the foot of the president.”

“I did say, though, and suggested very adamantly, that there is much more that our Commander-in-Chief can do to prove that he respects our troops and will let them do their job.”

As Palin went on to criticize the media for asking her about this, Lauer then had to clarify the situation against her latest accusation.

“I just want to make sure: There were no specific promises made about the content of the interview, only that this would be your first interview since you endorsed Donald Trump.”

“Well, I was told that this interview is about the caucus tonight in Iowa — and right on, who will it be to put America back on the right track and restore constitutional government that we are lacking today, and that we so need. And I said ‘right on,’ let me go talk about that, sure.”

Savannah Guthrie could only say: “And I think we talked about that quite a bit.”

Video viaToday/NBC News.

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Rachel Dolezal Goes On Media Tour — And Just Raises More Questions

Rachel Dolezal Goes On Media Tour — And Just Raises More Questions

Rachel Dolezal, the former head of the NAACP’s Spokane chapter who was revealed to have falsely presented herself as black — she is in fact white, as her parents publicly revealed last week — has now embarked on a media tour to control the damage.

The problem is that her damage-control marathon seems to be causing her even more damage. Indeed, a picture seems to be emerging of a person who channeled her isolation and social alienation into the manufacturing of a whole new identity for herself, through a discovered affinity with the African-American community.

Dolezal’s press junket has criss-crossed the NBC News empire, with stops at many of their hosts’ studios. It started with an interview by Matt Lauer on the Today show, in which Dolezal said, “I identify as black” — shortly before Lauer showed Dolezal a picture of herself in her teens.

She also criticized her parents, who emerged to reveal her background: “I really don’t see why they’re in such a rush to whitewash some of the work that I have done and who I am and how I have identified.”

(In a situation like this, she might want to avoid the word “whitewash.”)

Dolezal said that beginning at age five, she “was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon,” and giving herself “black curly hair.”

She denied Lauer’s description that she had been “deceiving” people, claiming instead that during her early civil rights work she had been described by local newspapers as “transracial,” “biracial,” and eventually “black” — which she never corrected.

And in another interview that aired Tuesday night, Dolezal told NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie: “I definitely am not white.”

Sitting down with Amber Payne of NBCBLK, Dolezal had to admit that yes, she has still enjoyed white privilege throughout her life, in a way that black people have not been able to do.

Payne also got Dolezal to admit that her hair is indeed a weave.

MSNBC also showed a sneak preview of an interview by host Melissa Harris-Perry, which also aired Tuesday night — in which Dolezal insisted she is not a “con artist,” but is sincerely dedicated to “the movement, my work, my life, my identity.”

Dolezal also spoke to Harris-Perry of her connection with the black experience, notably as the mother of two black sons, and of her “spiritual, visceral, just very instinctual connection with ‘black is beautiful,’ just the black experience and wanting to celebrate that.”

Harris-Perry, who is herself of mixed racial parentage and identifies primarily as black, seemed skeptical. She told Dolezal: “My mother is a white woman — who interestingly, grew up in Spokane, Washington — who’s raised black children. But she doesn’t herself feel black. She’s a white woman doing the work of parenting black children,” and asked Dolezal to explain the distinction.

Dolezal also conceded to Harris-Perry that yes, she could see why some people out there — including black women — might be angry at her. But she also said she would “never want to be a liability to the cause” of civil rights.

As part of the network’s rolling coverage, MSNBC featured two other African-American commentators to talk about the clips — and they weren’t buying it.

Endorse This: Rand Paul vs. Savannah Guthrie (And The Old Rand Paul)

Endorse This: Rand Paul vs. Savannah Guthrie (And The Old Rand Paul)

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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) just started out of the gate on his presidential campaign yesterday — and it only took him until this morning to get into a train-wreck interview with a reporter on a national TV show. (Worse still, this isn’t the first time he has scrapped with a female news anchor.)

Watch as Paul tells NBC’s Savannah Guthrie how to do her job and ask him questions in a proper manner — after she asks a probing question or two — then share this video!

Video viaToday/NBC News.

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