Whitewashing The Garden
The ConWeb gathered to praise Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally -- and to paper over its dark overtones and an opening speaker's trashing of Puerto Rico as an island of "garbage."
The ConWeb served has the de facto public-relations operation for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and that operation fully came together in aggressively defending Trump’s Oct. 27 rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The outlets aggressively hyped the rally while distracting from its dark tone and the insults hurled by some speakers. Here’s how the ConWeb did its dutiful PR work for Trump.
Media Research Center
The Media Research Center was already whining about coverage of Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden before it even happened. Comedy cop Alex Christy groused in an Oct. 25 post:
Perhaps one reason The Atlantic story alleging Trump is a secret Hitler fan has flopped is because Trump’s critics, such as CBS’s Stephen Colbert, see fascism in the littlest of things. On Thursday’s taping of The Late Show, Colbert tried to suggest that Trump’s desire to hold a rally at Madison Square Garden is some sort of attempt to recall the pro-Nazi rally that took place there in 1939.
Colbert declared, “I don’t think winning or losing has anything to do with this. Aides say for three straight presidential campaigns Trump has mused about holding a rally at Madison Square Garden adding, ‘he has just been obsessed with this.’”
Everyone knows Trump loves rallies, crowds, and a good story, so holding a large, headline-grabbing rally in the world’s most famous arena in his former hometown makes sense given his personality. Colbert, however, wasn’t so sure, “It’s just, it’s just a coincidence. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that in 1939 they held a pro-Nazi rally there. Yeah, it was, it was a stain on MSG’s history and I imagine a very uncomfortable courtside seat for Spike Lee.”
You know who else loved rallies, crowds and a good story?
Later that day, Tim Graham had a latent spasm of Clinton Derangement Syndrome:
Hillary Clinton appeared on the Kaitlan Collins show on CNN to elaborate on the theme that Donald Trump is a fascist. She implied Trump’s upcoming rally at Madison Square Garden will resemble the Nazis rallying there in 1939. She’s a bitter clinger.
“One other thing that you’ll see next week, Kaitlan, is Trump actually reenacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939. I write about this in my book,” Clinton announced. “President Franklin Roosevelt was appalled that neo-Nazis, fascists in America were lining up to essentially pledge their support for the kind of government that they were seeing in Germany. So I don’t think we can ignore it.”
Twitchy noted that Tammy Bruce reminded Hillary on Twitter than Pope Francis had a rally at Madison Square Garden in 2015….and Bill Clinton accepted the Democrat nomination for president there in 1992. Nobody at CNN “fact checks” Trump being accused of being a Nazi.
After the rally, the MRC defended the rally and raged that the its dark undertones were pointed out. First up was Curtis Houck:
ABC’s Good Morning America began another workday spewing more thick venom in the direction of former President Trump and his tens of millions of supporters, blasting Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally as “dark,” “filled with grievances,” “incendiary,” “outright racist,” “profane,” and “vulgar” thanks to Trump as well as a litany of warm-up acts.
In contrast, ABC offered nary a negative word about Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, touting her as “sprinting toward the finish line, blitzing the battlegrounds, hoping to drive voters to the polls” and “leaning on her most powerful supporters to hammer home what’s at stake,” including a “searing” defense of abortion by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
As always, co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos set the table, look at this framing in an opening tease:
[…]
Stephanopoulos later had the setup to idolatrous Trump-hating correspondent Rachel Scott, denouncing the rally’s “profane and racist” turn. The latter concurred that Trump’s “rhetoric has turned increasingly dark and filled with grievances” and the Madison Square Garden rally was “completely overshadowed by comments that were vulgar and, at times, just outright racist.”
[…]
Scott hit more predictable notes, including her declaration that the Trump campaign should have known Tony Hinchcliffe would say something controversial like he did about Puerto Ricans.
How can one be “idolatrous” and “Trump-hating” at the same time? Doesn’t the fact that Scott allegedly hates Trump mean she’s being the opposite of idolatrous?
Houck went on to complain that Hinchcliffe’s vulgar insults were accurately reported:
CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today were more passive and saved much of the criticism for Hinchcliffe.
“Trump the spectacle enthralled thousands of supporters. But the political impact remains unclear. Strategists tell us the words of others on stage, not Trump, could be amplified by Democrats in the coming days,” declared CBS chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa.
Co-host Nate Burleson said “comments that, quite frankly, rubbed people the wrong way” with Costa saying “jokes that veered into racist comments — they veered into really offensive remarks” and “speakers that not only just towed the line, they went over the line — crossed it and crossed it boldly.”
[…]
NBC co-host Hoda Kotb described the rally and Trump’s speech as having been“overshadowed by racist remarks.” Trump campaign correspondent Garrett Haake repeated the o-word: “Trump’s message was over shadowed by some his supporters’ dark and sometimes racist rhetoric.”
Graham returned to try and whatabout his way out of the rally’s hateful tone:
The New York Times “news” team described Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally as a “Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism.” But what do you really think? There were a whole set of mudslinging headlines to cover the Sunday MAGA speeches in New York City.
CNN.com by Stephen Collinson: “Trump unveils the most extreme closing argument in modern presidential history”
POLITICO: “Trump’s New York homecoming sparks backlash over racist and vulgar remarks”
MSNBC.com by Steve Benen: “With racist Madison Square Garden rally, Trump and his allies prove Democrats’ point”
USA Today video: “Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden marked with racism and vitriol”
The first problem here is to presume Trump’s speeches are unique in “vitriol.” Reporters also use words like “insults and grievances,” as if Democrats never insult Trump or air grievances. They never sound vitriolic against Trump, with all the warnings of Fascism and the End of Democracy?
Jorge Bonilla tried to distance Trump from hateful words at his own rally in an Oct. 29 post:
With a week to go before the election, the Regime Media hold out hope against hope that they can get their hands on a good Trump-adverse story, hopefully one that might damage him in key swing states. The fallout from comic Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial set at Madison Square Garden is the latest such instance.
[…]
The hopium wafting throughout the media being that Hinchcliffe’s set might anger Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania to the point of holding the state and therefore clinching the election for Vice President Kamala Harris. Let this serve as your periodic reminder that the media truly do not care about Puerto Rico unless it is in service of the ongoing agenda.
So it is that Hinchcliffe’s set is pushed to the moon. Even though it was NOT delivered by Trump. None of that matters.
But Hinchcliffe was specifically invited to speak at Trump’s rally, which Bonilla wants you to believe doesn’t matter. He didn’t mysteriously appear there.
Clay Waters, meanwhile, went with 30-year-old whataboutism:
New York Times reporters Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman, and Michael Gold were on the scene for the purported Trump hate-fest held at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The resulting story featured what political polling guru (and Kamala Harris supporter) Nate Silver in his newsletter called “the sort of headline” the paper’s “liberal critics” have “been pining for”: “A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism.”
[…]
The media tends to be less sensitive when Republicans are not just joked about, but threatened “as a joke” at political events. A newsletter from the 1995 AFL-CIO union convention, which featured then-Vice President Al Gore as the main speaker, included this tasteless tidbit: “Drive home safely and remember: If you must drink and drive, try to do it when [Texas Republican Sen.] Phil Gramm is crossing the street.”
The New York Times ignored that truly hateful crack, as did the networks, and they certainly didn’t demand Gore distance himself.
But the MRC’s original item on the newsletter indicates it came from an AFL-CIO group in New Hampshire; the union’s convention that year was in New York City. Further, the convention appears to have run Oct. 23-25; according to the original MRC item, the newsletter in question came out on Oct. 29, well after the convention was over, meaning that Gore was long gone by the time it came out.
No reasonable person would try to directly blame Gore for that. Then again, Waters thinks Trump somehow bears no responsibility for an offensive speaker who spoke just before him, so nobody’s accusing him of being reasonable.
Newsmax
Newsmax’s coverage of Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden began on Oct. 9, when an article by Sandy Fitzgerald hyped that Trump “is planning a major campaign rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, nine days before Election Day.” Solange Reyner rewrotea Trump campaign press release on Oct. 14:
Former President Donald Trump will hold a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Oct. 27 at 5 p.m., his campaign announced Monday.
“New York is reeling from the harmful effects of the dangerously liberal policies championed by Kamala Harris and Democrats like Eric Adams,” the Trump campaign said in a press release.
[…]
Trump’s message to New Yorker is “simple and built on his winning record: If you want to return to the strongest economy in over 60 years, rising wages, quality jobs, strong borders, and safer neighborhoods, then vote for the Trump-Vance ticket,” the release said.
Antoher article that day touted a Republican New York City councilwoman declaring it to be “very exciting” that Trump was holding a rally in New York City.
On the day of the rally on Oct. 27, Newsmax kicked things off with a wire article accurately noting that the rally is “a high-profile spectacle aimed at generating media buzz in a state that he is likely to lose on Nov. 5.” That was followed by talking heads serving up pre-rally gushing:
Allen West to Newsmax: Trump’s N.Y. Rally ‘Upsetting the Apple Cart’
Pete King to Newsmax: Trump Belongs at Madison Square Garden
Rep. Stefanik to Newsmax: Trump’s N.Y. Rally Will Be ‘Historic’
Then came the usual Trump stenography:
Afterward, there were the usual right-wing talking heads spouting mandatory praise of Trump:
Markwayne Mullin to Newsmax: Trump Showing He’s a ‘Real Leader’
Mike Huckabee to Newsmax: ‘MAGA Square Garden’ Rally ‘Electric’
Rep. Malliotakis to Newsmax: Trump’s New York Rally ‘Fantastic’
RNC Chair to Newsmax: Madison Square Garden Rally: Voters Want Change
When some noted the parallels to Trump’s rally and a pro-Nazi rally held at Madison Square Garden (actually the current arena’s predecessor) in 1939, Newsmax made sure to register right-wing unhappiness with that comparison. The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy grumbled in an Oct. 28 article:
Social media users lambasted MSNBC after the left-leaning TV network showed Nazi rally clips during its coverage of former President Donald Trump’s campaign gathering at Madison Square Garden.
The network compared Trump’s Sunday event at the sold-out New York mecca to a 1939 Nazi rally at MSG.
“But that jamboree happening right now, you see it there on your screen in that place is particularly chilling because in 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so-called pro-America rally,” the MSNBC anchor said while showing the footage.
Critics of MSNBC’s coverage expressed their outrage.
[…]
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, blasted MSNBC as the “scum of the Earth” on his social media platform, the New York Post reported.
The Democratic National Committee joined the mainstream media in trying to tie Trump to fascism. During the rally, the DNC projected digital messages on Madison Square Garden’s exterior.
“Trump praised Hitler,” one of five planned projections from the DNC said.
More complaints followed:
One thing Newsmax was not eager to report on, however, was warm-up alleged comedian Tony Hinchcliffe disgustingly smearing Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and claiming he “carved watermelons” with a black man on Halloween. Newsmax’s first article on Hinchcliffe was an Oct. 28 article by Jim Thomas focused on bashing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticizing him and the rally:
Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., ignited fierce backlash from MAGA supporters after likening former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally to a “mini-Jan. 6.”
Her remarks sparked heated responses across social media, fueling an ongoing debate over the event’s tone and rhetoric.
[…]
The controversy began when comedian Tony Hinchcliffe opened the event with remarks that quickly raised objections.
Hinchcliffe’s jokes about Puerto Rico, Hispanics, and Black Americans sparked criticism, with many observers — including Ocasio-Cortez — deeming the commentary offensive. Though Trump’s campaign promptly distanced itself from Hinchcliffe’s statements, the fallout continued.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, voiced her strong disapproval on the left appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
She said, “This was a hate rally,” and argued that the event mirrored the incitement that led up to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
“We have to understand how unhinged this campaign has gotten,” she said, suggesting that the rhetoric was aimed at stirring animosity toward groups such as Latinos, Black Americans, and even “childless Americans.”
In response to the criticism, Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez released a statement emphasizing that Hinchcliffe’s joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Thomas then tried to defend Hinchcliffe and the rally:
Hinchcliffe is a well-known comic with a popular stand-up show. However, his performance and the rally’s larger themes became a focal point in online debates, with some MAGA supporters opposing Ocasio-Cortez’s characterization. Many attendees noted that the event featured a diverse crowd, including members of various racial and ethnic groups.
An article that day by Mark Swanson let Hinchcliffe blame people who didn’t find his sleazy insults funny:
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who goes by the stage name “Kill Tony,” pushed back on the outrage machine in the aftermath of his joke about Puerto Rico at Sunday’s rally for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying Democrats “have no sense of humor.”
Hinchcliffe aimed his remarks at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrat vice presidential candidate, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who criticized the comic in real time Sunday during their live stream on Twitch.
“These people have no sense of humor. Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist,” Hinchcliffe said in a post to X on Monday.
Newsmax offered up other reactions, as well as an attempt to distance Trump from the controversy:
Newsmax then tried to bury HInchcliffe’s insult with a claim about something Presidenrt Biden allegedly said, as described in an Oct. 29 article by Kate McManus: ‘As controversy raged Tuesday over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico being a ‘floating island of garbage,’ President Joe Biden jumped into the fray by calling supporters of former President Donald Trump actual ‘garbage.'”
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily, being the de facto PR division of the Trump campaign, was absolutely giddy about Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. One article, such as it was, merely embedded a video of Trump’s speech, and another was only an embedded post from WND’s Twitter/X account that gushed, “The Madison Square Garden arena has reached MAX CAPACITY of 19,500 for the Trump rally today, and the NYPD has reported 75,000 are outside!” Then criticism of the rally came in, and WND couldn’t handle it. Bob Unruh hypocritically ranted in an Oct. 28 article:
Democrats, for years already, have claimed, wildly, that President Donald Trump is a “Hitler.” They insist that he’s a “fascist,” and that’s essentially their only articulable reason why he shouldn’t be elected.
Longtime failed Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was interviewed just days ago, and cited her own book, and other officials who align with her, as confirmation of that.
And then she sought to push on American people that Trump was re-acting a 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden with his event over the weekend.
That was all “news” to MSNBC:
The network, delivering a long list of its political propaganda points to Americans,spent its reporting time making comparisons between the two events, then reporting as if the suggestions were not its own.
“Donald Trump’s extreme rhetoric and rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City has drawn comparisons to when supporters of Hitler packed the Garden in 1939,” the network posted.
It was the Daily Mail, one of the largest publications in the world, that said the network “shockingly” edited in images of the actual Nazi rally into the coverage of Trump’s campaign event, which featured a star-studded list of supporters, packed the house with almost 20,000 fans, and, according to police, had tens of thousands of fans waiting outside.
WND had reported only days ago that Democrats chose the “Hitler” epithet to insult and damage Trump, and potentially spark violence if he’s elected, as in a civilized society, what else should happen if a “Hitler” is elected.
But even in the battle for insults, they lost.
That happened when controversial former Roman Catholic archbishop, Carlo Maria Vigano, who was the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2011 until 2016, described Kamala Harras [sic] as “an infernal monster who obeys Satan.”
As ConWebWatch pointed out when he initially cheered Vigano’s vicious insult, Unruh didn’t explain why it’s acceptable to smear Harris as being in league with Satan but likening Trump to Hitler is somehow beyond the pale — and he didn’t tell his readers that WND repeatedly likened Barack Obama to Hitler and other Nazis. Of course, that fact would have undercut his sense of outrage.