MSNBC anchor Brian Williams fought with House minority leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday night over his recent trip to “kiss the ring” of former President Donald Trump, displaying “exclusive” images “from their meeting in Mar-a-Lago.
Earlier in the day, the leading Republican congressman traveled to Florida to meet with Trump about the future of the Republican Party. The meeting came just weeks after McCarthy criticized the president for his role in the insurrectionary rebellion, saying that Trump “has some responsibility” for inciting the MAGA crowd that invaded the Capitol.
During the Thursday night broadcast of The 11th hourWilliams promised his viewers that his production team had obtained an “exclusive video of this meeting today between McCarthy and Trump”, telling his guests that they would discuss it after broadcasting the clip.
Instead of filming Mar-a-Lago, however, the famous “You Complete Me” scene from the 1996 film Jerry Maguire was shown, featuring characters played by Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger professing their love for each other.
Immediately after Zellweger’s character said, “You got me in the hello,” Williams interrupted and feigned surprise to see that the control room was showing the wrong footage.
“This is, uh, obviously we rolled the wrong clip. And we went, we were sold a bill of goods here, ”Williams said dryly. “I thought it would be because of the McCarthy and Trump meeting and someone would, of course, be in trouble.”
After pretending to punish the program staff, Williams turned to speaker Baratunde Thurston to note that “you have the leader of the Republicans in the House, coming down to kiss the ring and God knows what else, meeting with a former president deposed under his command – decorated house in Florida. “
“Is it because this is the only game they have, they really need fans and what they fear most is that the fans will turn against them?” Williams asked further.
“Brian, I’m still recovering from the video,” replied Thurston, still laughing.