MSNBC flaunted their disdain of President-Elect Donald Trump Thursday afternoon when they invited leftist author Michael Lewis on to discuss the Trump bashing games he detailed in Vanity Fair. Host Kate Snow was more than happy to play along, starting the segment off with a quote from Lewis’ article, “The theme is sort of about a board game you say, ‘Will reveal the predicaments of the entire classes of Americans under Donald Trump. And consequences for great swaths of our society.’”
Lewis explained that the idea for his Trump bashing games came from conversations he had with whining high school snowflakes in California, who were ‘bewildered’ that Trump won the election. “I mean, for example, one collection of kids were trying to imagine what Trump could possibly do to get himself impeached,” he recalled, “And they ran through every absurd possibility, like murdering someone in the White House, and they came to the conclusion that nothing would get him impeached.”
Snow perked up with excitement at Lewis’ retelling of his Trump impeachment discussions, and cheerfully read an excerpt from his article fantasizing about Trump family drug use:
We have a quote from that section of the article, you write briefly, ‘They all agreed that if Trump were caught on camera snorting cocaine in the White House-maybe with one of his children-there was at least a chance he’d be impeached. But only slight chance. The election had taught these kids that a large part of their country no longer holds political candidates to the standards of behavior enforced by their own high school.’
According to Lewis, Trump’s candidacy was “completely upending for them, because they saw this guy running for president who's been doing things every day that we get them expelled from school.” “I was struck by their inability to imagine what this meant. I just thought we are all in this predicament of this guy,” Lewis continued to complain.
And that is the reason for his Trump bashing games he argued, “One of the ways, of like, stretching your imagination is to create a game, like force your imagination out of its little box and start thinking of it a little differently.” As if his games were some sort of intellectual brain intensive exercise.
One of his other games targets Trump’s supporters, with the premise centered on how to keep them rabid:
The first game is: Clearly, these Trump supporters what they need is anger. The whole enterprise runs on anger. The whole campaign ran on anger. You can do that when you are running for president. You can’t really do that as president. It’s very hard to keep anyone angry at anybody other than you, once you become president. So the game is like, where do you point this, how do you generate this anger?
Such a disgusting conversation about the president-elect and their supporters would be unimaginable for the liberal media if Hillary Clinton had won the election. They would smear her dissenters as sore losers, as misogynistic, and backwards hillbillies from fly-over country. But since their enemy was elected it’s no holds barred.
Transcript below:
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MSNBC Live
December 22, 2016
3:17:40 PM EasternKATE SNOW: Let’s talk about this article because it’s a little tongue and cheek. Right? The theme is sort of about a board game you say, “Will reveal the predicaments of the entire classes of Americans under Donald Trump. And consequences for great swaths of our society.” What’s the larger point you’re trying to make?
MICHAEL LEWIS: Well, no. The larger point was that I was just colliding with kids who were responding to the Trump's election, and their bewilderment. And I found myself playing these games with them. I mean, for example, one collection of kids were trying to imagine what Trump could possibly do to get himself impeached. And they ran through every absurd possibility, like murdering someone in the White House, and they came to the collusion that nothing would get him impeached.
SNOW: Yeah, we have a quote actually. We have a quote from that section of the article, you write briefly, “They all agreed that if Trump were caught on camera snorting cocaine in the White House-maybe with one of his children-there was at least a chance he’d be impeached. But only slight chance. The election had taught these kids that a large part of their country no longer holds political candidates to the standards of behavior enforced by their own high school.”
LEWIS: No, I think it’s completely upending for them, because they saw this guy running for president who's been doing things every day that we get them expelled from school. And who violated his values system such as it was with such alien to them and they did not know what to make of it. I was struck by their inability to imagine what this meant. I just thought we are all in this predicament of this guy. There is no telling what he's going to do. I don't think he knows what he's going to do. I don’t think there’s any great strategic plan or anything like that.
So we are putting—And I think one of the reasons that the world feels like such an unsettled place right now is that we sense deep down that our imaginations are not capable of dealing the moment. One of the ways, of like, stretching your imagination is to create game, like force your imagination out of its little box and start thinking of it a little differently.
…
LEWIS: And any case, I just thought well, here is the first game. The first game is: Clearly, these Trump supporters what they need is anger. The whole enterprise runs on anger. The whole campaign ran on anger. You can do that when you are running for president. You can’t really do that as president. It’s very hard to keep anyone angry at anybody other than you, once you become president. So the game is like, where do you point this, how do you generate this anger?
Anyway, it’s spun in and one thing led into another, I found myself—probably because I was talking to kids about it-- and playing games with the Trump phenomenon. In the end, we needed a board game, Trump's America, and the board game will encourage us to imagine what we need to imagine before it happens.
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