Prime-Time Trump Splits the Cable Pundits

The networks hustled to gin up suspense before the speech, which Lester Holt of NBC described as “under the shadow of another possible shutdown.” Margaret Brennan of CBS declared that “the state of our union is in limbo.” Jonathan Karl on ABC noted that “the majority of Democrats would not applaud as the president came in the chamber. That is just something you do not see in a State of the Union address.”

[Here are four takeaways from President Trump’s State of the Union address.]

The postgame analysis fell along the usual lines. On Fox News, the pundit Brit Hume declared that “people may remember this one,” and the host Laura Ingraham called the speech “pretty pragmatic — a lot for people on both sides of the aisle to really love.” Simultaneously, Van Jones of CNN called the speech “psychotically incoherent, with cookies and dog poop,” and on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow expressed horror that Mr. Trump had suggested that the investigations into his administration were hurting efforts at peace. “Deeply uncomfortable,” Ms. Maddow said.

One ideological outlier was Rick Santorum, the former Republican senator, who on CNN called it “probably the worst-delivered speech I’ve seen Donald Trump give.” Chris Wallace, the “Fox News Sunday” host, said that Mr. Trump’s address “was quite effective as the opening speech for the 2020 campaign; I don’t believe it’s an especially effective speech in terms of trying to make legislative progress in 2019.”

Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News anchor who parted ways with NBC last month after a rocky tenure as a “Today” host, commented on the proceedings on Twitter, weighing in on Senator Ted Cruz’s facial hair (“he looks good w/it”) and whether the president had snubbed Kim Kardashian when he introduced a woman whose commutation she had encouraged. (“She deserved a shout-out,” Ms. Kelly wrote.)

As for the star, Mr. Trump offered up apocalyptic warnings about immigrant violence, sending fact checkers into a scramble. “There are certainly a lot of facts to check, which we will be doing over the course of the next several hours, and probably the next several days,” said the CNN host Anderson Cooper.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/business/media/trump-state-of-the-union-media.html?partner=rss&emc=rss