In a report for MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday, political correspondent Kasie Hunt used the upcoming Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California to proclaim the GOP to be “all but extinct” in the Golden State.
She began by observing: “Well, more than ever, the Republican Party wants to be the candidate of Reagan, they attend Reagan dinners, they go back to his alma mater to give speeches, they come here to his library to debate. But it all raises a question, could Ronald Reagan even get elected in California today?”
Hunt touted: “He's become a Republican legend. But here in California, his once Grand Old Party is all but extinct. No Republican’s carried the state since Reagan's re-election....Democrats dominate Sacramento. Meg Whitman lost her race for governor in 2010, and 2016 presidential candidate Carly Fiorina lost badly in her recent bid for Senate.”
She seized on Republican opposition to illegal immigration as the cause: “The national GOP brand can be a problem in California and the presidential race is dredging up an issue that many say poisoned the well here in the first place.”
A soundbite followed of Mark Barabak from The Los Angeles Times: “If you point to a single factor, it would have to be the Latino – you know, the way Latinos have turned against the Republican Party, the way Republicans have damaged themselves with Latino voters.”
Hunt then pushed the liberal meme that Reagan would find no room in the current GOP: “It's a reminder that for all the Reagan romance, he might not have fit so well in today’s Republican Party.” A clip was featured of Reagan arguing, “I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here.”
She noted: “Contrast that with front-runner Donald Trump...”
Hunt conveniently left out the fact that the amnesty Reagan supported in the 80s was contingent on the promise of more border security, which was not implemented.
Here is a transcript of the September 16 report:
7:08 AM ET
WILLIE GEIST: Kaise Hunt is live at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Kasie, what are you looking at tonight?
KASIE HUNT: Willie, good morning. Well, more than ever, the Republican Party wants to be the candidate of Reagan, they attend Reagan dinners, they go back to his alma mater to give speeches, they come here to his library to debate. But it all raises a question, could Ronald Reagan even get elected in California today?
JEB BUSH: Ronald Reagan.
CARLY FIORINA: Ronald Reagan.
SCOTT WALKER: Ronald Reagan.
JOHN KASICH: Ronald Reagan.
DONALD TRUMP: I was a big fan, a very big fan, of Ronald Reagan.
HUNT: Today Republicans make the pilgrimage to debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, in the state where Reagan acted...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN [ANNOUNCER]: Bedtime for Bonzo, starring Ronald Reagan.
HUNT: ...and then governed. He's become a Republican legend. But here in California, his once Grand Old Party is all but extinct. No Republican’s carried the state since Reagan's re-election and the last one to win statewide was an actor turned politician.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENGGER [TERMINATOR]: I’ll be back.
HUNT: But the GOP hasn't been back since. Democrats dominate Sacramento. Meg Whitman lost her race for governor in 2010, and 2016 presidential candidate Carly Fiorina lost badly in her recent bid for Senate.
FIORINA: That's a generational issue honestly. I think people are beginning to figure out that the Progressive policies that Democrats in that state have pursued over decades are literally destroying people's lives.
HUNT: Republicans argue that a fiscally conservative but socially moderate candidate could help the party come back to power in California. But even the state's top Republican in Washington has to admit it's an uphill climb.
[to Rep. Kevin McCarthy] So you still maintain that it's not all that lonely to be a Republican in California?
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY [R-CA]: Oh, it's lonely. And when you throw a party you know everybody in the room.
HUNT: But the national GOP brand can be a problem in California and the presidential race is dredging up an issue that many say poisoned the well here in the first place.
MARK BARABAK [LOS ANGELES TIMES]: If you point to a single factor, it would have to be the Latino – you know, the way Latinos have turned against the Republican Party, the way Republicans have damaged themselves with Latino voters.
HUNT: It's a reminder that for all the Reagan romance, he might not have fit so well in today’s Republican Party.
RONALD REAGAN: I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here.
HUNT: Contrast that with front-runner Donald Trump, as a pro-immigration group is doing in this new ad.
TRUMP [NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM ACTION FUND AD]: They're bringing crime, they’re rapists. If I’m elected, they’re going to be out of there day one.
HUNT: But that hasn't stopped Trump from evoking Ronald Reagan's name to defend his own evolving views.
TRUMP: I think they have a point from years ago. But they also have that same point with Ronald Reagan, who was a Democrat absolutely with a liberal bent. And Ronald Reagan became, you know, not only a Republican but a pretty conservative Republican – not the most – but a pretty conservative Republican.
HUNT: So we'll never know exactly what Ronald Reagan would have thought about Donald Trump standing on his debate stage as the front-runner, but Joe and Mika, I will say he has at least breathed new life into the old Ronald Reagan slogan, “Let's make America great again.”
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, yes. We all have the hat. Kasie Hunt, thank you so much.
