MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow praised President Joe Biden’s address on the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday evening and criticized former President Donald Trump.
Maddow said, “It was interesting knowing a little bit of what we know about behind the scenes about how long the speech had been expected to be, knowing that it went longer. Clearly, we don’t know. We never got prepared remarks. We didn’t see the speech in advance, but it was clear that he was ad-libbing and emoting and speaking a little bit off the cuff in addition to what he had planned. At least that was my impression. I think it was very moving. The president is very good at articulating empathy, which has been said a million times, but these are the kinds of times when that becomes something that is incredibly utile for us as a country. When he said we’re coming through it, I don’t know if that was an ad-lib line or prepared line. That was what I took away. He’s not saying it’s all roses, we’re all done, it’s all better. I think it was important when he talked about that July 4th goal. He said, ‘You know what, this is just a goal. We may need to reinstate restrictions if things go pear-shaped.’ That was a moment of honesty rather than shine on a moment where he was telling us things are getting better. ”
She added, “It’s a different type of man serving as president with a different idea of leadership, a different idea of success. Whatever you think about President Trump, I think it’s fair to characterize his public pronouncements about COVID as being about himself, about things he did, how he was taking care of it. He wanted you to believe that it was over because he was in charge, and obviously, he would be the one who would fix this. Instead, what we got from President Biden tonight was I need your help. I need your help. I need your help. I need you to get vaccinated when it is your turn, and you have the opportunity to do it. I need you to help others, your family members, and friends get vaccinated too. More news when he announced there will be a new federal website to help people get people vaccine assignments rather than the hunting and pecking through all of the different means we’re doing to try to get those vaccines. He’s saying, I need your help. These are all the things we’re doing, but we all need to do it together. I need you to listen to Dr. Fauci. I need you to get vaccinated. I need you to know how this is going to work and if things go badly, we are going to reinstate restrictions. He’s asking for a whole of government and a whole of country response rather than talking about what he’s done.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN