Host gleefully pushes plunger, destroys liberal narrative It will go down in history alongside Geraldo's infamous "Al Capone's Vault" special as a spectacular example of over-hyped, on-air self-idestruction
Rachel Maddow embarrasses herself, torpedoes liberals everywhere, by handing Trump a big tax return win
In case you missed it (and let's face it, you probably did because no one watches MSNBC) last night's installment of the Rachel Maddow show boasted a journalism fail so epic that it should have been directed by David Lean. As you'll soon see, a story they thought would be a massive "gotcha" moment blew up in the host's face like one of Bugs Bunny's exploding cigars.
Maddow, you see, had gotten ahold of Donald Trump's 2005 tax return. ...So she took to Twitter to hype the big reveal.
Can you sense the condescending glee? Can you picture Maddow's smile as her head twitches back and forth like a preening, gloating, parakeet? Sure you can.
Clearly this was going to be really, really, important. After all, the left has been telling us - for at least a year - that Trump lost so much money in the late 90's that he hadn't paid taxes for decades. He's always been a terrible fraud, dontcha know. His wealth is probably non-existent.
As former Clinton Campaign Press Secretary Brian Fallon put it, this was the "Holy Grail."
Unfortunately, about a half hour before Maddow went on, The White House stole her thunder by releasing the following statement:
“Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the official continued. “That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million dollars even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million dollars, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that.”
Immediately, sane people realized that this was not going to go well for those hoping to see Trump obliterated by an obnoxious MSNBC host. If Maddow was smart, she would have toned down her report, and backed away from the edge of the cliff. That's not what she did. Instead, she went full throttle, opening her show with a 20-minute monologue filled with innuendo, shadowy connections, conspiracy theories, and her trademark arrogance.
It began with Chris Hayes admitting that lots of people tell him to shut up:
Yep. It's incredibly tedious, and you probably skipped most of it. That's ok. It's Rachel Maddow. No one blames you for refusing to subject yourself to her rant.
That said, some prominent liberals thought it was very, very, important that you tune in:
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Apparently, they either ignored, or never saw, the White House statement. "Finally," they thought, "we've got him."
They did not have him.
In fact, they confirmed the White House statement and ended up making Trump look pretty good. As Van Jones admitted:
Yes, when you've lost Van Jones, you're in trouble. Maddow's over-hyped report fizzled in spectacular fashion, making the host, her network, and liberals everywhere look like idiots. Instead of demolishing Trump, Rachel Maddow succeeded in giving him one of his best nights since he took office.
CNN's Van Jones: that's a good night for @POTUS Trump
Yes, when you've lost Van Jones, you're in trouble. Maddow's over-hyped report fizzled in spectacular fashion, making the host, her network, and liberals everywhere look like idiots. Instead of demolishing Trump, Rachel Maddow succeeded in giving him one of his best nights since he took office.
Congrats to @maddow for proving that A: he's rich B: he paid a crapton of taxes C: I can't trust government to protect my private info. https://t.co/DErgcgltng
Immediately, all those super-important lefties started running away from the non-story of the century. All their hopes, dreams, and hard work had been reduced to smouldering rubble. The "Trump doesn't pay taxes" narrative was gone, so they began screaming "new plan! new plan!" and set about moving the goal posts.
They'd defeated their own argument. Somehow that had to be Trump's fault, too. The "leak" must have been a deliberate act of misdirection, committed by Trump himself.
So...not the "holy grail," then? What a difference a half hour makes!
They've now endured about 12 hours of brutal mockery and one yuuuuge self-inflicted wound. They spent over a year carefully constructing the tax narrative only to push the plunger and demolish it in one half-hour MSNBC segment. It was, like an actual structural implosion, something to see.
You can watch the reveal segment below. It will go down in history alongside Geraldo's infamous "Al Capone's Vault" special as a spectacular example of over-hyped, on-air self-idestruction. Try not to pull a muscle with all the laughing and pointing.
