(NewsInsights.org) – Rachel Maddow and MSNBC projected former President Donald Trump to win the Republican Iowa caucus before 8:45 p.m. Yet, when officials finally called the race for Trump, and he began to deliver a victory speech, Maddow said the network had chosen not to carry the speech live and gave an extended explanation for its decision to censor the candidate after having a meltdown earlier in the broadcast about the results of two exit poll questions.
Maddow told her audience that “the projected winner of the Iowa caucuses” had begun to deliver his victory speech. She said the commentators would inform viewers if the former president said “anything noteworthy, something substantive and important.”
The MSNBC anchor pointed out that her employer and other news outlets had “generally stopped giving an unfiltered, live platform” to Trump. Maddow claimed the network made the difficult decision after several iterations of discussion based primarily on the belief that the network incurs “a cost” for airing provable fallacies.
Earlier in the broadcast, host Steve Kornacki discussed the results of two Iowa entrance poll questions. The first asked caucus voters whether Biden legitimately won in 2020. Only 30% said yes, while 66% said no. Maddow incredulously asked whether two-thirds of Iowa GOP caucus voters actually seemed to believe the incumbent president was “a fake” and somehow thought Trump was the legitimate president.
The second entrance poll question asked whether caucus voters would consider Trump a viable candidate if courts convict him in one or more of the four criminal indictments he’s facing. This time, 63% said they would still consider him a viable candidate and would vote for him, while 32% said they would no longer support Trump’s candidacy in that case.
Maddow seemed to have a meltdown that such a sizable portion of the conservative voters of Iowa would potentially continue to support a convicted felon for president. She indicated she was having trouble believing that Trump would receive the nod from the Republican National Committee if a third of the conservative voters in Iowa refused to support his candidacy.
Abandoning any hint of impartiality, Maddow whispered, “I’m sorry, but he’s going to be convicted.” When one of her colleagues pointed out that she couldn’t say what would happen despite overwhelming evidence, Maddow rejoined in her stage whisper, repeating, “He’s going to be convicted.”
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