Former Trump campaign correspondent and current MSNBC host Katy Tur appeared on Thursday’s The 11th Hour to argue that President Trump won’t suffer “the consequences” of his actions (e.g. his lewd Mika Brzezinski tweets) until Republicans oppose him on policy (and thus team up with Democrats).
Tur observed that whether it was the Access Hollywood tape or his smears against Megyn Kelly, “[t]here hasn't been any consequences for his behavior” going all the way back to “[w]hen he was on the campaign trail, there weren't any consequences then, his poll numbers didn't tank.”
She left out the fact that the media were obsessed with helping Trump destroy his Republican presidential primary opponents, but those are simply stubborn facts she and the liberal media must deal with (see examples here, here, here, here, and here).
“And now that he is the President of the United States, you can have Republicans come out and condemn his language and say no I'd never say that. But if the next day they're going in and working with him and try to get a bill passed, there are no consequences he can continue doing what he has been doing,” Tur added in a clear slip exhibiting her liberal values.
Towards the back end of Brian Williams’s circus show, liberal historian Jon Meacham discerned that this time in American history has been “odd and disconcerting moment to say the least” while he maintains “hope” that “when we look back on this, it will simply have been a waste of America’s time and not the beginning of a serious cataclysm.”
Elitist author and Aspen Institute president Walter Isaacson was also on hand, spewing liberal jargon about how he hoped Trump (who ran as a Republican) would skew both parties and govern “as a true independent...to change the way, you know, Washington worked”:
[H]e could have done an infrastructure bill. I don't see why anybody would start with a health care bill and do it strictly on partisan lines, instead do an infrastructure bill and a tax reform bill and try to put together a coalition, forward looking Republicans and Democrats. Then he would have transformed American politics by being the first truly independent President, somebody who could, you know, rise above things. He did just the opposite, and that still baffles me.
On health care, it’s hysterical that he lamented the GOP health care bill was being done “strictly on partisan lines.” One would suggest Isaacson pull up the votes on the Affordable Care Act. That was hardly bipartisan.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from June 29's MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
June 29, 2017
11:11 p.m. EasternBRIAN WILLIAMS: Given all of this, the question to you is, is there anyone in his life or circle who can talk to him?
KATY TUR: Ivanka. Ivanka is the one that can talk to him about this. But Ivanka only has so much influence over her father and that has been proven time and time again because her father has made no secret of doing this time and time again. His behavior is not just a one-off. There is a pattern to it. You just played multiple times on the campaign trail and before that where he would go after women. He would go after people that he felt attacked him. Listen, this President is very easy to understand. If he doesn't feel like he’s being treated with respect or he doesn't feel like he is being treated fairly, he feels like it's fair game to go as low as he can go to make you feel small, to make you feel little and to belittle your position. And he has done this with Mika Brzezinski before. He’s done this with our colleagues before. The male colleagues as well. This is a pattern of behavior Donald Trump is not going to change because he is the president of the United States. Kimberly put it perfectly. There hasn't been any consequences for his behavior. When he was on the campaign trail, there weren't any consequences then, his poll numbers didn't tank. He kept on winning primaries. When he came out and the Access Hollywood tape, when that was revealed, the consequences were the Republican Party tried to throw him under the bus but then poll numbers didn't tank and they all got back onboard and supported him and many of them voted for him. And now that he is the President of the United States, you can have Republicans come out and condemn his language and say no I'd never say that. But if the next day they're going in and working with him and try to get a bill passed, there are no consequences he can continue doing what he has been doing.
(....)
11:52 p.m. Eastern
JON MEACHAM: Yeah, Henry Adams once said the president has a course to steer and a port to seek, and you want — you want a president who thinks big and thinks brightly. Jefferson was a master of talking about how the sun of progress was going to go over the continent, and when it — no one would know when it set. President Reagan improved on Jesus when he talked about a shining hill on a hill and the Sermon on the Mount. It was just city on a hill, but Reagan's visual imagination made that even more vivid. So Walter used a good phrase a moment ago. It's unchartered waters. It's an odd and disconcerting moment to say the least. My own hope is when we look back on this, it will simply have been a waste of America’s time and not the beginning of a serious cataclysm.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Well, put it that way, it sounds a little dark. Walter, you're at the Aspen Institute at this annual gathering of the smartest and most talented people on the planet, including but not limited to several of my friends and colleagues from here. What must it be like to hear that conversation knowing as both of you gentlemen do, that it is exactly one half of the two conversations going on in America.
WALTER ISAACSON: Yes, you know, the conversation here we try to step back a bit. In fact, Elaine Chao, who’s in the President’s cabinet, was speaking today, but there was sort of a whistfulness for what Jon referred to as the optimism, the sense we can rebuild America. Talking about both the infrastructure bills and the future of work. And the weird thing is that, you know, if Trump had wanted to, to he could have governed as a true independent who came in to change the way, you know, Washington worked and he could have done an infrastructure bill. I don't see why anybody would start with a health care bill and do it strictly on partisan lines, instead do an infrastructure bill and a tax reform bill and try to put together a coalition, forward looking Republicans and Democrats. Then he would have transformed American politics by being the first truly independent President, somebody who could, you know, rise above things. He did just the opposite, and that still baffles me.
