MSNBC Host Repeats 3 Discredited Claims — 2 In Less Than A Minute

Ben JohnsonDecember 28, 2021

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who continuously accuses Fox News of promoting “misinformation,” repeated three widely discredited stories about former President Donald Trump during a single, 13-minute segment of Tuesday’s “Deadline: White House” — two of them within one minute of each other. One of the stories directly contradicted video footage she had just shown.

Claim #1: Lafayette Square redux

Wallace devoted a full segment to criticizing the Trump family for its alleged disdain of the Bible. “Hyper-masculine, real men,” she said, “show their faith by gassing protesters in Lafayette Square in order to — for the sole purpose of — being able to hoist a Bible above Trump’s head as a photo prop, upside-down I believe, in front of St. John’s church.” (Emphasis in original.)

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Last June 1, President Trump visited the St. John’s Episcopal Church, often called “the church of presidents,” which rioters set fire to during arson-tinged unrest. Although the legacy media — and candidate Joe Biden — accused the president of ordering the U.S. Park Police to spray people with tear gas in order to stage a “photo op,” an official government report released under the Biden administration cleared Trump of those charges.

“The evidence we reviewed showed that the USPP cleared the park to allow a contractor to safely install antiscale fencing in response to destruction of [f]ederal property and injury to officers that occurred on May 30 and May 31,” the report said. USPP officials “made those decisions” and began clearing the area “several hours before they knew of a potential [p]residential visit to the park, which occurred later that day.”

Claim #2: Trump said ‘The Art of the Deal’ is better than the Bible

That lie came less than 60 seconds after Wallace played a clip of an interview with then-candidate Trump saying he would not name his favorite Bible passage, because his faith was “very personal.”

“The Bible clearly is so special to Donald Trump that in that moment, he couldn’t think of a single passage that he liked, and it was second only to The Art of the Deal,” Wallace said, citing the president’s book.

But in the video she had just played, the future president told Bloomberg News that he considered the Bible his favorite book, not his own bestseller. When people at his campaign rallies “hold up The Art of the Deal, I say, ‘My second favorite book of all time.’ But I just think the Bible is just something very special,” he said.

“The whole Bible is incredible,” he said.

Donald Trump unable to name one verse from “favorite book,” The Bible pic.twitter.com/x9CBK51Fj5

— Brian Tashman (@briantashman) June 1, 2020

Claim #3: Trump called people who serve in the military “losers”

Later in the segment, Wallace repeated another long-discredited, anti-Trump canard: that Donald Trump refused to visit a military cemetery and called fallen U.S. soldiers “losers.”

Wallace said Trump’s alleged hostility to the Bible sounded like “a direct echo” of “an earlier Atlantic [magazine] piece about Donald Trump calling those who served our country in the military suckers. … He had horrible things to say about anyone who had been injured or lost their life serving this country. So if you serve your country, you’re a sucker. If you read and adhere to the teachings of the Bible, you’re a sucker.”

“That stoking of anger is so deliberate… Anger is a very powerful force in politics. I went to Trump rallies often during the campaigns in 2016 and 2020, and there’s a deliberate stoking of anger…” – @KattyKay_ w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/djaxbyMQ7w

— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) December 29, 2021

An article published in The Atlantic in September 2020 asserted that President Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris “because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead.” It went on to cite anonymous sources who claimed President Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”

But no fewer than 10 people — including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who became an indefatigable Trump foe — went on the record to say The Atlantic’s story wasn’t true. “It was entirely a weather-related decision, and I thought the proper thing to do. I never heard he made that kind of comment about another country’s forces either, no,” said Bolton.

Former presidential counselor Johnny DeStefano said plainly, “I was on this trip. The Atlantic bit is not true. Period.” Former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Trump “was outwardly in awe of the accomplishments of the Allied Forces, and the sacrifices they paid,” as he surveyed the battlefield on the 75thanniversary of D-Day.

I was on this trip. The Atlantic bit is not true. Period. https://t.co/gf88OoRYla

— Johnny DeStefano (@johnnydestefano) September 4, 2020

The Atlantic’s owner, Laurene Powell