On The 11th Hour, Angelo Carusone discusses meek media reaction to Trump's “two weeks” dodge: “There needs to be a lot more doggedness and consistency and persistence and not letting him hijack the narrative”
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From the May 27, 2026, edition of MS NOW's The 11th Hour
SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND (GUEST HOST): Important to note, prior to the war with Iran being started, they did not control the Strait of Hormuz.
Angelo, how does the news media cover this war when both sides here are known for not telling the truth? I mean, the fact that we are citing Iranian news media reports, I — it's still very jarring for me, because since when can we take the Iranians at face value? But then also, we're not getting a lot of clarity from the United States government at this point.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS): So, I think, one, we — and this is where I give them no pass, and they should be getting a lot of — they should get a lot of criticism for it, is that Trump has had a strategy. He's been very open. He doesn't have many strategies, but one muscle memory he has is this idea of a two week thing. He's been doing this for decades. It's that when he has a tough question, he says, two weeks, and I'll get back to you.
And he's brazen about it. He says, well, that push kicks the can. People will give you the two weeks, and for the most part, the news media will move on, and that works. It feels like we are having the same news cycle every ten to twelve days. I mean, because it basically is what happens.
One of these reports comes out, people then ask about it, it says, oh, we're working on it, two weeks, couple weeks, and then we come, we're back again. Something happens, some new developments, some Iranian report, and now we're asking these questions. So one, I think they're falling into that trap, that cycle. So that's the first thing. They shouldn't be doing that.
There needs to be a lot more doggedness and consistency and persistence and not letting him hijack the narrative with those gaps.
And the second thing, and this ties in what we were talking about earlier, which is that we should not lose sight of how much this is the story of the economy because it is. Food prices, gas, all of these things, fertilizer, all those local news stories tie back to this. It's not just about tariffs and Trump's lack of governance. It is what he has done here, and that is starting to get a little bit more attenuated.
People are not going to — that has to constantly be reconnected, and it that they're losing sight of that connective tissue, tissue, and I think that's a big thing — a big failure. And then the third is, you know, there's only so much pressure you can put on Trump. Let's be real. But there are a whole bunch of people around him that have futures and hopes, Rubio being one of them. If you look at it, it's not very effective. We don't have to clutch our pearls about the ridiculous scary stuff he said. We shouldn't lose sight of how wild that is when we talk about blowing up countries, and, you know, we should not become numb to that. But Rubio is not getting nearly enough pressure, either for what he's doing or incompetence. This is incompetence. He has all the leverage in the world, and he can't get a deal? What's the deal? That that's an issue. And I don't know why the people around him are not getting more pressure. They are susceptible to some of to some of those laws of nature that the media has at their disposal, and they're not, because Trump is allowing himself to be the singular focus.