Journalists and political commentators for NBC hit President Obama for delivering a national address Sunday night that was widely perceived as uninspired and ineffective.
Monday on NBC’s “Today,” foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell said the content of Obama’s speech, as it related to the administration’s strategy to combad the Islamic State terrorist network, did not befit the Oval Office setting.
“[W]hat he needed to project is that we have solutions and in fact with no new strategy to announce, having elevated this to a Sunday night primetime speech from the Oval Office, which is, you know, incredibly important,” she said. “It’s rarified air … and to not have a new strategy, to not explain new military options or new political options or to embrace some sort of unifying vision really is a problem.”
In his speech, Obama maintained that the U.S. will “overcome” and “destroy” the Islamic State. Though even as he acknowledged that the threat had “evolved,” Obama did not indicate any major change in strategy, which largely relies on airstrikes and training opposition forces in Iraq and Syria.
Mark Halperin, an NBC contributor and reporter for Bloomberg Politics, said Obama’s address fell flat.
“This isn’t a business-as-usual moment and too much of what he’s doing, including last night, even using the Oval Office, was business as usual,” he said on “Today.” “Repeating basically what he thinks the right policy is, with nothing new and no sense of urgency, which is what a lot of Americans are feeling.”
Chuck Todd, anchor of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Sunday on Twitter that the speech was necessary but that it “lacked news” and would likely have no impact “politically.”
MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, also criticized Obama’s speech as it was being delivered.
“God, is this guy really going to be responsible for our fight against ISIS for the next year?” he said on Twitter. “Political platitudes replace military strategy.”
