Veteran television anchor Tom Brokaw has praised Donald Trump for his 'very clever' rhetoric on the pandemic during the campaign, noting that his upbeat tone and promise that people would soon be back to work was what 'people wanted to hear'.
The 80-year-old special correspondent for NBC News had rare words of praise for the president during Lester Holt's show on Tuesday night.
'You know, I've been covering presidential politics in this country since 1968. And I've seen a lot of changes,' he said.
'I have never seen the country as deeply and sharply divided as it is now and it's the second cycle of this kind of division with President Trump surprising everybody the first time and, fair to say, surprising everyone a second time with his strong showing.
Tom Brokaw, 80, appeared on Lester Holt's program on Tuesday night as the results came in
Brokaw praised the president's 'very clever' tactics of campaigning to reopen the country
'I think he made a very clever move in the last couple of weeks in which he said to the country: "Go back to work. It's time to get the economy going again. COVID, we're close to getting that solved so you can go back and earn some money and get your business going again",' Brokaw continued.
'I think it helped him a lot.'
Brokaw said that 'people wanted to hear' Trump's encouraging rhetoric about the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, by contrast, followed CDC guidance very closely, and instead of holding mass rallies limited himself to drive-in events, or gatherings with a small number of people.
Trump has mocked him repeatedly for staying 'in his basement', and insisted that he did not have that luxury as president. He said he needed to be visible to the people.
People are seen at an empty restaurant in Manhattan on September 9
An empty Las Vegas strip is seen during a state wide closure to contain the pandemic
A view of the empty basketball courts in Venice Beach, closed due to COVID restrictions
Brokaw also noted that Trump's 'law and order' agenda might have helped him on election day as many Americans are fed up following a summer of anti-police protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd on May 25.
'There were a lot of white people who were supporting the black demonstrators until the black demonstrators kind of lost control and they were not just demonstrating anymore, they were going into streets and they were robbing stores and they were tipping over cars and it went on most of the summer,' Brokaw said.
'How much of that had to do with it I'm not sure. But it was a long way from Dr. King who was so successful with a program of nonviolence. So how that played into all of this, I don't know.'
Holt then reminded viewers that Trump has not yet won the election.
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