During MSNBC’s Friday coverage of the inauguration, Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow played up a report from the Huffington Post claiming that President Trump’s transition team requested military hardware for the inaugural parade. Matthews wondered, ” Wouldn’t that look like a little shades of Pyongyang? ” Maddow added, ” It would be a little Red Square to do that. ” Minutes later, Maddow revisited the supposed request for a ” Red Square-style show of military force ,” and lamented, ” It’s embarrassing — to be the only president with no public service or military experience being the one who wants to most show off the military. ” [ video below ]
Matthews, who had labeled Trump’s inaugural speech “Hitlerian” earlier in the afternoon, raised the Huffington Post’s reporting as the President’s motorcade was getting ready to depart the U. S. Capitol: “You know, I love this guy who’s on the transition team — got quoted in the paper today — I think it was the Times — the New York Times — that his hope was that they would include rocket launchers and tanks. ” Maddow clarified that it was from the left-wing website. Matthews replied with his “shades of Pyongyang” line.
The female MSNBC host did disclose that ” it was a single source ,” and soon added that “the request had been for missile launchers and tanks….to roll down Pennsylvania Avenue — which, of course, would do a number on Pennsylvania Avenue, for one. ” The Washington Post ‘s Eugene Robinson agreed with her point: ” You wouldn’t have a Pennsylvania Avenue if you rolled a bunch of tanks down i t. ”
Maddow then adopted Matthews’s invoking of North Korea, which Robinson and Steve Schmidt agreed with as well:
RACHEL MADDOW: And it would be a little Pyongyang — it would be a little Red Square to do that —
EUGENE ROBINSON: It would be a lot Pyongyang —
STEVE SCHMIDT: May Day in Red Square —
MADDOW: The military apparently talked them out of that idea. But again, as commander-in-chief, presumably, if he did order that, he would get that.
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Just over ten minutes later, Maddow revisited the Huffington Post report as the presidential motorcade proceeded towards the White House.
