Abby Huntsman, co-host of “The Cycle” on MSNBC and daughter of former Republican presidential candidate and Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, thought she heard something odd at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s campaign kick-off event. It was something so odd, in fact, that she had to tell the world via Twitter. It turns out she was horribly, horribly wrong.
Huntsman was sure that, as Walker was entering the arena to a cheering crowd, large members of that crowd started chanting “We want Trump!” She wrote, “Scott Walker walks out to chants, ‘we want Trump.’ Wow that is unbelievable.”
This would indeed be shocking if, at a carefully orchestrated campaign launch event, staffers had failed to noticed the crowd was overrun with supporters of an opponent. But it didn’t happen.
What the crowd was chanting, as would be expected, was, “We want Scott,” a reference to the candidate they were there to hear speak. Huntsman was quickly informed of her obvious error, deleted the tweet and issued a non-apology apology.
Screenshots are forever pic.twitter.com/60MIt6pmcZ
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) July 13, 2015
Pretty sure it was “we want Scott.” https://t.co/2YvkGOykKE
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 13, 2015
If so, it sure sounded like Trump. https://t.co/N3HKvUvjLC
— Abby Huntsman (@HuntsmanAbby) July 13, 2015
Apologize if I misheard the crowd chanting.
— Abby Huntsman (@HuntsmanAbby) July 13, 2015
When I pointed out that her apology contained an obvious qualifier that made it anything but an apology, the MSNBC host brushed it aside and asked to move on.
"If"? That's not an apology, that's a dodge. https://t.co/q3QOzRXsry
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) July 13, 2015
No dodge. I misheard. My mistake. Let's move on. https://t.co/KyF4SY3Rza
— Abby Huntsman (@HuntsmanAbby) July 13, 2015
Then actually apologize. No qualifiers, no caveats, just an old fashioned "Yeah, I was screwed up. Sorry about that" https://t.co/qZWwR9TTxt
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) July 13, 2015