While there were plenty of poignant moments in Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress Tuesday night, perhaps none were sweeter than the honoring of DJ Daniel. The 13 year old was given just five months to live when he was diagnosed with brain cancer more than six years ago, but he has defied the odds ever since.
As Trump told it, DJ’s dream is to become a police officer and he has been sworn in as an honorary member of the force at police departments around the country. “Tonight, DJ, we’re going to do you the biggest honor of them all,” Trump told the young man who was seated with his father in the gallery. “I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States.”
Overcome with emotion, DJ accepted the badge from Curran and wrapped his arms around him for a hug. Shouts of “DJ” broke out in the chamber where many had risen to their feet, but noticeably quiet – and seated – were the Democrats in attendance. The reaction was similarly bizarre on at least one cable news panel, with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace inexplicably politicizing the moment with a diatribe about January 6.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by National Review’s Rich Lowry and 2Way’s Mark Halperin to discuss Wallace’s inappropriate commentary and what it illustrates about the left’s reaction to Trump.
Wallace’s Whiff
Following Trump’s address, MSNBC brought out hosts like Wallace, Rachel Maddow, and Jen Psaki to give instant reaction and analysis. After Maddow called Trump “disgusting” for making “a spectacle out of praising a young man who’s thus far survived pediatric cancer – as if the president had something to do with that,” Wallace chimed in with her take.
“The beauty of that child is the tragedy of the Trump presidency because we don’t know how he’s survived pediatric cancer, but it is likely he benefited from some sort of cancer research,” she began. “And it is a fact that Trump has slashed cancer research.”
She then pivoted to his career goals. “I hope he lives the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop. He knows what he wants to do. And maybe when you have childhood cancer, that crystallizes for you,” Wallace continued. “And I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer.”
With a visibly uncomfortable Psaki looking on, Wallace then took it a step further. “I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump supporters,” she said in reference to January 6. “And if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide. And I hope he isn’t one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.”
No one on the panel addressed Wallace’s remarks, which Megyn said is telling. “That is jaw dropping… You could see Jen Psaki literally leaning away from her, and even Rachel Maddow… just bridged away to another topic,” she noted. “When you have gone too far for Psaki and Maddow, you have gone too far period… I don’t know what’s happened to this person. She used to be a Republican.”
Breaking Norms
In Lowry’s view, there are substantive things Democrats could have objected to in Trump’s speech, but DJ and his family’s inspiring story isn’t one of them. “If you look at that from a rational perspective, you’re like, ‘That must be a deep fake of what Nicolle Wallace would say in such a circumstance,'” he said. “To connect it to January 6 – how does that even come into your mind? There is a cancer survivor, a kid in a police uniform, and that is the first thing you think of? It is mind boggling.”
Megyn said it illustrates just how pernicious so-called Trump Derangement Syndrome (TSS) can be. “There is no curing you of TDS once you get it… and it really does warp the way you see everything around you,” she explained. “You see a wonderful event for a child, and instead you see only doom and gloom and darkness if it has anything to do with the orange man… The dour, TDS-afflicted anchors crapping all over the child’s joy is something very evil.”
Whether it was the Democrats sitting stone-faced in the chamber or Wallace on MSNBC, Lowry said the left no longer appears to be in touch with reality. “What we are talking about in a capsule here is the debate over who is ‘normal.’ For them, it is just a theological matter that the Trump is ‘not normal,'” he shared. “But if you just look at the reaction to DJ… everyone is standing up, applauding, wiping tears from the eyes. That is normal. Sitting grim faced, not reacting to this story, or connecting it to January 6 is not normal.”
That break from reality already cost Democrats the 2024 election and could continue to cost them going forward. “I think everybody assumed, as I did, after the election that the Democrats would get their act together,” Halperin concluded. “I think last night demonstrated – as both cause and effect – they are far from getting their act together if that is the best they could do… [and] Nicolle Wallace basically demonized a little boy.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Lowry and Halperin by tuning in to episode 1,019 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.