MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace: Trump's “Bullying” Of The Media Has “Taken On A Life Of Its Own That Is Dangerous And Sinister”

From the November 2 edition of MSNBC's The 11th Hour:

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BRIAN WILLIAMS (HOST): I wasn't going to raise this because the story should never be about us, we're there to cover it, but then I saw it on all the cable network news tonight that involves Katy Tur. Lyndon Johnson famously said, “to be in politics you need the hide of a rhinoceros.” He was talking about having your name on a ballot, as a politician and not as someone covering the race. Donald Trump went there again, name-checking Katy Tur from the podium.

[...]

WILLIAMS:The crowd broke into a rather unsavory chant after that. Katy, what is it like to have that on top of covering a traveling campaign?

KATY TUR: Well, I do have the hide of a rhinoceros, so that helps. Let me tell you, it's been a wild ride for about a year and a half. And it is a unique experience to have an entire crowd of people, whether it is an open-aired venue like we were in today, or a stadium with 10-plus thousand people booing you. And it's especially unique when they're actually saying your name and looking directly at you. And that's what happened today. That being said, Donald Trump was complaining about this idea that he has that the press doesn't show his crowds, which is just factually untrue. The cameras that are there, there's a number of cameras, he sees them all. Oftentimes when he's playing to the camera and saying we don't move our cameras to show these crowds, the cameras are all looking at opposite directions showing the crowds. And not to mention we are penned in. The campaign doesn't allow the cameras to even leave to go get more crowd pictures. We also have Jacob Rascon who talks to voters on a daily basis -- Trump voters on a daily basis, up and down crowds, on MSNBC all day long.

So the idea we're not showing this movement is just factually incorrect. Donald Trump also does know this to be incorrect. He's joked in private with reporters about how he understands how the pool camera works. And Brian, I don't need to explain it to you but I'll explain it to our audience. The pool camera is one camera that sits in the middle of the press area, and it shoots the candidate, and it stays on the candidate at all times because we're trying to get what the candidate says, and it goes out to all of the networks. That camera is stationary, it is never supposed to move. The rest of the networks have their own cameras that move all the time and show their feeds alongside that pool camera. And Donald Trump has joked in private because he is a man who does entertainment for a living -- he understands how it works, or used to, at least -- he understands the production quality of this, and he's joked about how he knows how a pool camera works. So this is a schtick that he does. It's to rile up his base. It's to give them an excuse for polls that might not be in his favor. It's to give them an excuse to berate somebody other than Donald Trump and to blame somebody for something that doesn't look as good as they want it to look.

WILLIAMS: Nicolle Wallace, having said that and having heard that, difficult to picture a 41, 43, McCain, Romney, Obama calling out members of the media for derision at the public eye.

NICOLE WALLACE: Katy is elegant and brave, but what it is is bullying, and it's bullying a woman, and it's bullying a journalist that covers him. It's not only odd in politics, it's odd in public life. It's something that if any of our kids did in school, they'd probably be kicked out of public, private, religious -- he has normalized cyberbullying. He has normalized this sort of bullying of a woman in a huge chanting crowd. He has normalized behavior that maybe had its seed in standing up to what a lot of Republicans think is a biased media. But it has taken on a life of its own that is dangerous and sinister, and in the end will not help him win. It will be part of the reason he loses.

Previously:

The Guide To Donald Trump's War On The Press (So Far)

Trump Attacks NBC's Katy Tur During Florida Rally

CNN's Wolf Blitzer Calls Out Trump For Singling Out Journalists At His Rallies

MSNBC Reporter Katy Tur Explains The Consequences Of Trump Inciting Furor At The Press