October 28, 2024
MSNBC is facing a wave of criticism after airing clips from a 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden during its coverage of former President Donald Trump’s historic campaign rally in the same venue on Sunday. The Left-wing network compared video from Trump’s rally, held at the legendary New York City arena, to footage of the pro-Nazi march more than 80 years ago, drawing outrage on social media and in the mouths of conservative commentators.
The controversy arose as an MSNBC anchor referenced the infamous 1939 rally, saying, “But that jamboree happening right now, you see it there on your screen in that place is particularly chilling because in 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so-called pro-America rally.” The network then showed footage from the Nazi event alongside scenes from Trump’s rally, implying a comparison between the two gatherings.
Republicans instantly denounced the clip, and some called MSNBC’s decision to show the Nazi rally footage “shameful.” X member @amuse tweeted: “Yesterday’s Trump rally was filled with Americans from every walk of life including orthodox, conservative, reform, and secular Jews. I saw a woman in a burka. It wasn’t anything like a Nazi rally. Shame on MSNBC.” The diversity of Trump’s rally crowd, said opponents, made such an analogy appalling.
And to compound the storm, Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski, a 94-year-old Auschwitz survivor, was at the rally as well. Wartski is the new Trump supporter who attacked Vice President Kamala Harris’s past statements regarding Trump being a “fascist” and claimed his support: “Because he’s a mensch.” The Republican columnist Colin Rugg took up the cause, saying: “Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski was in attendance at the rally this evening, along with other Jews who were supporting Trump. You don’t hate the media enough.”
Musk, Tesla’s CEO and SpaceX co-founder, was one of the celebrity guests speaking at Trump’s rally, and also commented on X that MSNBC was “the scum of the Earth” for broadcasting the footage. Musk’s comments heightened the right’s anger over what they perceived was an intentional attempt to derail Trump’s rally.
Some Trump delegates pointed to the event’s positivity and claimed that the coverage of the rally detracted from the diversity and unity of the event. “Trump had a Revolutionary Rally in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The Energy was unmatched, and a Promise of a Better America was on the horizon… Liberal Media couldn’t handle this, so they ran a Propaganda Campaign simultaneously. They compared this Trump Rally to a NAZI Rally in 1939.”
The timing of MSNBC’s segment was also an issue, as Democrats have just recently established themselves as the “party of positivity and unity.” In her August nomination acceptance speech, Vice President Kamala Harris repeated that mantra calling for “a new way forward.” Some would argue MSNBC’s decision to use the footage from 1939 is not in line with that vision.
