White House correspondent Jonathan Lemire didn't mince any words on Friday morning as he called out Donald Trump for purportedly face-planting following what some have said is the first real crisis of his second term.
From his perch as a co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Lemire expanded upon a column he wrote for The Atlantic where he, under the headline "The Day Trump Became Un-President," wrote of the president's press conference about the DC plane crash tragedy, "And just like in 2020, Trump used a national calamity to try to score political points and denigrate his foes. Fourteen hours after a midair collision between an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter outside Washington last night—the first crisis of the young administration, a moment to console a stunned and grieving nation—Trump repeatedly implied that the crash was the fault of his Democratic predecessors and of DEI policies."
Prompted by co-host Willie Geist on Friday morning, Lemire cut right to the chase.
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"In a moment that should have been to console a nation, to unify a nation, he did choose divisiveness yet again," Lemire said of the press conference. "He acted like an observer as opposed to someone who actually had, not just the opportunity and the resources, but the responsibility to get the answers."
"And he tried to score political points and it was also about shifting blame," he continued before strongly asserting, "This did happen under his watch."
"Yes only ten days into his administration, no one was going to say the president of the United States was at fault for what happened, but he couldn't handle the idea that this is a crisis suddenly he has to deal with," he accused. "So he tried to pass the buck to others and made these wild claims without evidence that it was –– whether it was President Obama, President Biden or these DEI policies to blame."
