MARK THOMPSON (HOST): These jokers on TV, he’s new, he’s the new president, he’s pivoted, he’s wonderful, he’s -- this is the man who’s declared war on them. Why are they giving him in the mainstream any quarter at all, Eric Boehlert?
ERIC BOEHLERT: Well we’re seeing the dream of the presidential Trump, right? There’s this very small window that was open last night and the entire pundit class is rushing in. Look, they’ve been looking for this for 18, 20 months since Trump first announced his campaign, and they’ve certainly been looking for it since November. We went through at least six different pivot cycles in the transition. Look how Trump started the day yesterday. He started the day yesterday -- threw the military under the bus saying it was their fault that that Navy SEAL was killed in Yemen, took no responsibility for the raid. The Pentagon said that everything could go wrong did go wrong. He kind of suggested that the wave of threats on Jewish Community Centers across the country were maybe a hoax, or maybe it was the left doing it to try to blame him and his supporters. That was by noon yesterday. If Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton had done either one of those things in a year, those would have been possibly their defining moment in the White House.
THOMPSON: That’s right. Yeah.
BOEHLERT: By noon yesterday. So look, they’ve been wishing, hoping, and praying for this. I can’t answer why they’re so interested in being able to celebrate Trump, but basically the headline was Trump reads somebody else’s speech and changes his tone. So it’s all very weird and very bizarre and kind of weird passive-aggressive psychological issues being played out in public. But the press has been dying to kind of show it can bend over backwards and be nice to Trump. So again, they have this very small window, I assume it will close very soon, and this quote-unquote “tone” will be a long-lost memory in a few days.
