‘I Cannot Believe This Is Real’: Rachel Maddow Incredulous After Republican Senator Reads Wrong Speech at RNC

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R. Johnson: “They are the party of open borders, reckless spending, weaponized government, and weakness on the world stage. This fringe agenda includes biological males competing against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children.”
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MADDOW: “Home state Republican Senator Ron Johnson tonight giving his remarks at the Republican National Convention on this, the first day of the RNC. Now, interestingly, Amna Nawaz, ‘PBS NewsHour’ anchor, she says that she asked Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson about the tone of his remarks. At one other point in his speech he said that Democratic policies are ‘clear and present danger to the country.’ She asked him about saying that about Democrats while he’s been otherwise calling for unity, and his response was that his speech that he just delivered at the RNC was not the speech he meant to give. It was all a big misunderstanding. The teleprompter loaded the old version, the new one called for unity, but they didn’t put that went in there, so he just gave the old one.”
Reid: “And he couldn’t ad lib some unity?”
(Laughter)
Wallace: “I mean, first of all —“
Reid:” You couldn’t do a little ad-libbing of unity?”
MADDOW: “Amna is a fantastic Reporter, I absolutely believe this is real, and I cannot believe this is real.”
Reid: “Yeah.”
PSAKI: “Well, first of all, we have all read from teleprompters.”
WAGNER: “And all scripted teleprompters.”
Reid: “Yes.”
PSAKI: “If something comes up in the teleprompter that Rachel Maddow would read that says like, ‘I love Donald Trump, he’s the best representative of our democracy,’ you probably would stop and not read it and know it was the wrong — I don’t know whose script that would have been, but — so that’s a little strange. But what this reminds me, though, is that some of the reporting around today and the Republican convention has quoted aides on background saying, ‘We’ve looked at all of the speeches and not a lot of them need editing,’ which seemed surprising to me, if that — “
MADDOW: “Meaning after this weekend’s event, nothing needs to be toned down, everything was already super responsible?”
PSAKI: “Correct. As in, ‘This is going to be unifying. That’s our intention. But not a lot of these speeches need editing.’ And what that led me to believe is, I’m not sure if we have a different meaning of unity and unifying, but it will be interesting to watch. I mean, each of these individuals, just like it’s true of the Democratic Party, are their own people. This is their moment to speak to the country and to prove themselves to the leader of their party. So, we’ll see what happens, but that tone may have been a greater indication of where we’re headed. We’ll see.”