She said this out loud! Nicolle Wallace asks Beto O’Rourke to play media critic: ‘What can we do better?

(Image: screenshot)

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace was slammed for effectively insulting real journalists when she asked presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke to direct the media on what they “can do better” in covering 2020 candidates.

Wallace invited the Democrat and former Texas congressman to “play media critic” during her show “Deadline: White House” on Friday, urging “don’t hold back.”

(Video: MSNBC)

“Play media critic: What can we do better for those of us covering your candidacies far away from where the first votes will be cast?” Wallace asked O’Rourke directly, prompting laughter.

“This is a good question. Well, I’ll tell you — so, it just is what it is,” he replied.

“It doesn’t have to be,” Wallace, who served as the White House communications director for former President George W. Bush, pressed.

“We’ll have incredibly powerful town hall meeting, 10 or 12 amazing questions, people sharing their own stories, their testimonials that help us to understand some of the challenges we face on affordability of prescription medication or this crisis in opioid overdose and abuse and death,” O’Rourke expounded.

“And then, afterwards, there will be members of the media who are there, especially the national media, who will ask me a horse-race question or some kind of sensational dynamic going on that does not connect to the lives of the people that we all just had a chance to listen to and to meet,” he noted.

“So this is kind of like the question you asked about the disconnect between Twitter and what we see in these town halls,” he added before adding his wish list of familiar liberal agenda items.

“I think more engagement on those fundamental issues. How do I afford to ensure that I can take care of myself and fill this prescription? Or how do I guarantee that my child is going to a world-class public school by ensuring we pay public school teachers a living wage? How do we confront climate change before it’s too late and help our fellow Americans understand the devastation that we’re seeing in the Central Valley of California, in Houston, Texas, along the Missouri and Mississippi, in Iowa,” O’Rourke posited.

“These are the issues that are on people’s minds right now. It’s very infrequent that I’m asked about one of those issues, present company excluded, by members of the media, especially when we’re on the ground and on the trail,” he added. “And I understand how captivating the horse race part of this can be, but I really feel that disconnect between what is often reported and what is often said in these town hall meetings.”

Wallace followed the exchange with an eyebrow-raising bit of “advice” for the 2020 contender.

“I’ll leave you with some free advice. I used to spend a lot of time on campaigns,” she said, suggesting O’Rourke get a hold of MSNBC’s correspondent on his campaign.

“Tell him what’s on your mind,” Wallace said. “If you don’t like the coverage, you can change it, you’re the candidate.”

The exchange left Twitter users stunned by Wallace’s fawning over O’Rourke and her attempt at “hard-hitting journalism.”

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