'The State of Our National Discourse' - Steve Kornacki

Oct 6, 2017

MSNBC Host and NBC National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki briefed the Franklin Pierce University community on "The State of Our National Discourse,” on Thursday October 5^th, 2017.

“The rise of Trump, his ability to win the Republican nomination and then to win the presidential election has really just challenged and maybe shattered, that might be the better word, just shattered some of the rules we thought kind of existed in politics,” Kornacki said.

The question, Kornacki added, is whether those laws of political gravity have changed for good.

“We assume 2020 will be Donald Trump running for re-election,” Kornacki said. “It’s a question of whether the Republican Party will be behind him from the beginning. Will there be somebody there who will run against him in the Republican primaries?”

On the other side of the aisle, Kornacki noted, there might be 20 candidates stepping forward to run.

In addition, citizens of many political leanings, who otherwise might have never thought of a run for the White House, might now look at what Trump accomplished and say, “Why not?”

As a surprise, our own Student Support Specialist – and Steve’s former H. S. Guidance Counselor - Jim O’loughlin introduced Mr. Kornacki, via video. Even though Jim was in Ireland at the time, he wanted to make sure he introduced his former student.

Prior to his lecture, Korniak had lunch at the Lakeside Educational Center, where he fielded questions from politically engaged students Christopher Bastien, Dante Comacho, Matt Dresselhouse, , and Kendra Syphers, who gained insight into how Steve navigated his early career when he was a recent college graduate.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin called Steve one of the network’s breakout stars of the 2016 election, and he now brings his intelligent perspective to coverage of Washington, D.C. as NBC’s National Political Correspondent.

Kornacki launched his political journalism career in New Jersey, where he spent three years reporting for PoliticsNJ.com and then co-hosting a political news series at News 12 New Jersey.

His byline can be found in D.C.’s Roll Call, the New York Observer, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, The Boston Globe, The Daily Beast, and Salon.

Steve got his start at MSNBC as a co-host of The Cycle, and later took over another MSNBC program, Up. In 2016, he was named host of a daily program from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.  He also frequently guest hosts on Hardball with Chris Matthews, All In with Chris Hayes and The Rachel Maddow Show.

 

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