Rachel Maddow is blaming her viewers for the Trump tax debacle - here's why

Executives at NBC are reportedly angry for not being in the loop on Rachel Maddow's "scoop" on Trump taxes that blew up in her face and made them a laughingstock. Maddow blamed the viewers for the furor, saying that they exaggerated it to be something the show didn't intend.

"Maddow now blaming viewers for all that hype and no delivery," Fox News reported, quoting a statement that she made to the Associated Press.

Because I have information about the president doesn't mean that it's necessarily a scandal. It doesn't mean that it's damning information. If other people leapt to that conclusion without me indicating that it was, that hype is external to what we did.

Some Trump supporters noted that the taxes were a credit to Trump's reputation, as it was speculated prior to the revelation that he wouldn't release taxes because he paid very little. Maddow's story showed that he paid much more than many expected, even exceeding the tax rate paid by his political opponents, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont).

"I don't really care," Maddow added. "It is funny to me that a president would spend this much energy and political capital to keep secret his finances and his taxes specifically and simultaneously would want to brag about how much money he made. If that's really what he wants the story to be, he can release all of his taxes and we can all glory in his immense wealth."

Page Six said insiders told them that executives at MSNBC's parent network NBC were very angry with the segment because they were kept in the dark as it developed, but were made to shoulder the embarrassment of Maddow falling flat on her face.

A source told them that NBC found out about Maddow's scoop at the same time the public did, and it appeared that the MSNBC president was trying to undermine NBC's president.

“It’s their cable network, but it’s still NBC News. [NBC] did not appreciate being kept in the dark … To hype such a big story and not really deliver is a bit embarrassing. Airing a story you’ve hyped 20 minutes into your broadcast makes it a lot less of a ‘breaking news’ story.”

Rachel Maddow blames viewers for her Trump tax dud, says people "expected too much" pic.twitter.com/8ATLVe4wLR

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 16, 2017

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