On Monday morning, NBC News personalities were reading from the same playbook in making lame comparisons between President Joe Biden and George Washington as NBC presidential historian Michael Beschloss appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and former contributor Jonathan Alter appeared on Morning News NOW.
Less than two hours after former contributor Jon Meacham appeared on Morning Joe with host Joe Scarborough discussing Meacham’s column comparing Biden to Washington choosing not to run for a third term in 1796, Beschloss appeared on the show with his own gushing over the Democrat President.
The liberal historian launched into praising President Biden for stopping President Donald Trump from being reelected:
…this is a President — President Biden — who loves democracy — I think will be honored and revered and beloved and have a large place in American history because he did so much to save democracy. Two bookends, January 6. Donald Trump lost the election, but tried to steal a second term as President by inspiring that insurrection at the Capitol, violated the law, could have trounced our democracy and fractured it if he had succeeded.
Instead of calling out Biden and other Democrats for hiding Biden for the past three years and trying to slip him back into another term in spite of his cognitive problems, Beschloss continued his praising of the President instead:
I think you and Mika mentioned this both earlier — you know, George Washington in 1795 said, “If democracy is going to work, political leaders have to leave power even if they can have more, so, therefore, I’m retiring to Mt. Vernon.” Joe Biden is doing exactly the same thing. He could have dug in this week and said, “Well, I’ve got those delegates, and I’m going to fight it out, and maybe at the convention things will change and maybe I’ll win, and, if I don’t, tough luck.”
He added: “Instead, he said, ‘The stakes for democracy are so great this year — Donald Trump could make this into a dictatorship, steal all of our rights, that I’m going to do what the toughest thing a politician perhaps can do, which is to walk away from power.'”
Scarborough then invoked the Roman leader Cincinnatus:
SCARBOROUGH: You know, we grew up hearing about how George Washington did that, but also, Michael, about Cincinnatus —
DECIDED: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: — the Roman leader who was given power. And after he made sure that Rome was safe once again, went back and gave up that power and went back to his farm. There is a — there is obviously a legend to that that’s lived 2,000 years — we’re talking 200 years later about George Washington.
Decision summed up:
…in Joe Biden’s case, as someone who, you know, he gave those great speeches on democracy, and, as you know, Joe, when you hear a political leader give a speech, you always wonder how much he really means it. Well, if anyone had any question, I never did. Joe Biden demonstrated in the last 24 hours that he’s willing to give up a half century plus political career to try to save this democracy.
About an hour later, as Alter appeared on Morning News NOW, he gave a similar analysis invoking Washington and Cincinnatus:
He will be remembered as a great President. He will be mentioned in the same sentence as George Washington. Why? Because selflessly leaving power and the circumstances of him clinging to it in the last three weeks will be forgotten. The basic decision to leave power which started with Cincinnatus in 439 B.C.E., and then George Washington picks up from Cincinnatus, and the city of course is named for this. Why Cincinnatus? Why is he still so well known? Because this selfless act of leaving power — which in human history is an extremely rare thing to do — elevates you. And in combination with the record of genuine achievement, it will put Joe Biden in very, very good stead in terms of history…
Transcripts follow:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
July 22, 2024
7:44 a.m. Eastern
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Michael Beschloss, so much history to talk about here. We can talk about Truman getting out in ’52, LBJ getting out in ’68, but 2024 has a — just a, in history — history not repeating itself or rhyming here. Here is a President and his wife who wanted to stay, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: No, that’s right. And as you know well, Joe, Truman got out in March of that year. Johnson got out in March of that year. Here we are in July — the convention is in about a month. So this is something that we have not seen in modern times. But, even more than that, let’s look at two historical moments that are almost bookends for the Biden presidency. January 6 — you know, this is a President — President Biden — who loves democracy — I think will be honored and revered and beloved and have a large place in American history because he did so much to save democracy. Two bookends, January 6. Donald Trump lost the election, but tried to steal a second term as President by inspiring that insurrection at the Capitol, violated the law, could have trounced our democracy and fractured it if he had succeeded.
Then, in comes Joe Biden, preserves NATO, huge legislative record, speaks about democracy throughout that presidency, and then, in the end, the toughest thing for a politician — I think you and Mika mentioned this both earlier — you know, George Washington in 1795 said, “If democracy is going to work, political leaders have to leave power even if they can have more, so, therefore, I’m retiring to Mt. Vernon.” Joe Biden is doing exactly the same thing. He could have dug in this week and said, “Well, I’ve got those delegates, and I’m going to fight it out, and maybe at the convention things will change and maybe I’ll win, and, if I don’t, tough luck.” Instead, he said, “The stakes for democracy are so great this year — Donald Trump could make this into a dictatorship, steal all of our rights, that I’m going to do what the toughest thing a politician perhaps can do, which is to walk away from power.”
SCARBOROUGH: You know, we grew up hearing about how George Washington did that, but also, Michael, about Cincinnatus —
DECIDED: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: — the Roman leader who was given power. And after he made sure that Rome was safe once again, went back and gave up that power and went back to his farm. There is a — there is obviously a legend to that that’s lived 2,000 years — we’re talking 200 years later about George Washington. I don’t know how long we’ll talk about Joe Biden doing this, but it is — it is — we can say, at the very least, it is radically different than what Donald Trump did after losing an election in 2020.
BESCHLOSS: Exactly the opposite.
SCARBOROUGH: Talk about how history will remember these two men.
BESCHLOSS: Well, in Joe Biden’s case, as someone who, you know, he gave those great speeches on democracy, and, as you know, Joe, when you hear a political leader give a speech, you always wonder how much he really means it. Well, if anyone had any question, I never did. Joe Biden demonstrated in the last 24 hours that he’s willing to give up a half century plus political career to try to save this democracy. Not everyone would do that.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm. mm-hm, mm-mh. Michael Beschloss, thank you so much.
(…)
NBC Morning News Now
July 22, 2024
8:45 a.m. Eastern
JOE FRYER: You love history so much. What was going through your mind yesterday when this decision came down? How do you rank this in the 21st century as far as important stories?
JONATHAN ALTER, EX-MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Extremely important, extremely unusual in American politics. The last time it happened was in 1968 when incumbent President Lyndon Johnson stepped away. I also was thinking about Joe Biden’s legacy. He will be remembered as a great President. He will be mentioned in the same sentence as George Washington. Why? Because selflessly leaving power and the circumstances of him clinging to it in the last three weeks will be forgotten. The basic decision to leave power which started with Cincinnatus in 439 B.C.E., and then George Washington picks up from Cincinnatus, and the city of course is named for this. Why Cincinnatus? Why is he still so well known? Because this selfless act of leaving power — which in human history is an extremely rare thing to do — elevates you. And in combination with the record of genuine achievement, it will put Joe Biden in very, very good stead in terms of history…
