MSNBC’s Wallace: Trump’s Pittsburgh Not Paris Speech Was ‘Dark,’ ‘Cynical,’ ‘Shallow’ View of America

While analyzing the speech President Donald Trump gave laying out his reasons for withdrawing from the Paris climate deal, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said it was “so incredibly cynical” and added that it revealed “a very shallow and cynical exploitation” of Trump’s base voters.

When asked about the line of Trump speech, “I was elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Wallace said, “Yeah, I wrote that one down, too. What’s so incredibly cynical about that, first off, I believe the speech belongs alongside American Carnage from his inauguration address and some of his convention speech was incredibly dark. This was that side of Donald Trump which is the one we’ve seen the most of in these prepared addresses, but it was an incredibly cynical look at our role in the world. And what’s interesting to me is that citizens of Pittsburgh were joined by citizens of Paris after 9/11 who fought as our NATO allies and died in Afghanistan for the United States of America.”

“So, it’s a false read on history, and separating out citizens of Pittsburgh from citizens of Paris is just a cynical — it sort of reveals a very shallow and cynical exploitation of the kinds of voters that think we have to choose between being citizens of a great American city and citizens of the world,” she continued. “That is simply not what a majority of people thought we had to choose between. I think people would like to believe, I think in their most optimistic visions of American leadership, it’s about innovating our way out of problems, it’s about finding a way to do both. To have our economy flourish without our children dying from asthma. I mean, it was one of the most cynical sort of prepared sets of remarks that I’ve heard from the president since inauguration day. Really stunning.”

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