There’s a certain tyranny to cable news: Through big news events and small news events, the three major networks tend to rely on a stable cohort of analysts and hosts. Regular watchers know what they’ll say. Really regular watchers know how they’ll say it.
Credit MSNBC for breaking a mold on Wednesday morning. For its pre-impeachment hearing analysis, hosts Nicolle Wallace and Brian Williams introduced George Conway, a prominent attorney and husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
He’s also pretty good on Twitter. For example:
He lies because he’s a sociopath, a con man—to deceive others.
But he also lies because he’s a pathological narcissist—to deceive himself, to protect his fragile ego from narcissistic injury.
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) October 16, 2019Someone on this runaway train needs to pull the emergency brake. Who’s it going to be?
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) October 16, 2019When he has needed a bit more space to elaborate on his Trump critique, George Conway has written op-eds for The Post: “Trump is a racist president,” for example. On Sept. 20, Conway and Neal Katyal wrote in a Post op-ed, “It is high time for Congress to do its duty, in the manner the framers intended.”
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Conway brought his pro-impeachment views to MSNBC on Wednesday morning. Asked about what constitutes an impeachable offense, Conway — who bailed on the Republican Party last year — offered the following:
That goes to the very heart of what a high crime and misdemeanor is. I mean, there are two ways to look at it: The first — the way I prefer to look at it — is the holistic view, and the holistic view is that when you become president, you raise your right hand and you swear to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and also the Constitution provides and uses that word, those words “faithfully execute,” in reference to faithfully execute the laws. And when you take on that duty — and the framers really took oaths seriously — you are promising to take that awesome power that’s being thrust upon you and use it for the nation’s benefit and not for your own benefit. And the problem with Donald Trump is, he always sees himself first.
It just so happens, noted Conway, that in the case of Ukraine, President Trump used the “most unchecked” power of the presidency — foreign policy, that is — to “advance his own personal interests as opposed to the country’s.” As several witnesses have claimed in closed and open House depositions, Trump and his associates attempted to condition military aid and an Oval Office meeting on the Ukrainian president’s announcement of an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Follow this authorErik Wemple's opinionsAs for why some folks can’t see the abuses of power, Conway need look no further than another cable-news channel — one where his sentiments might be a bit less welcome. “I’m horrified. I’m appalled,” said Conway about the Republican response to Trump’s misdeeds.
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With the analysis winding down, Wallace explored why Conway had agreed to ditch the writing in favor of talking. “Is it the degree of alarm, is it this moment?” she asked.
“It’s the moment,” responded Conway. “I don’t even frankly watch — no offense — I don’t even frankly watch much television news. I get my news online mostly. I watch television mostly for sports. And I don’t, frankly, want to be on television. But I just don’t get why people can’t see this and why people are refusing to see this.”
That’s a noble sentiment. But watch out, Mr. Conway: Lots of folks who are always on television these days once said they don’t want to be on TV or that they’re really just print people at heart.
Read more:
E.J. Dionne: The impeachment hearings are a battle between facts and partisanship
George T. Conway III: Trump is a cancer on the presidency. Congress should remove him.
Jennifer Rubin: Taylor’s early testimony reveals a new factual bombshell
Paul Waldman: Hearing’s first blockbuster shows why Trump is headed for impeachment
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