Likely still bitter after having wasted millions trying to make Jeb Bush president, Republican strategist and frequent MSNBC guest Mike Murphy quipped on Thursday’s Deadline: White House that he wouldn’t have used to a time machine to go back in time to stop Hitler but instead change Donald Trump.
Murphy was teed up by former Time head and onetime Obama administration official Richard Stengel, who blasted Trump’s questioning of the Puerto Rican death toll from Hurricane Maria by arguing that Trump’s “not even perceiving the basic things other people perceive because he has so much denial, you know, that he is not able to see the things everybody else does which is incredibly dangerous.”
Out of the blue, the stereotypical cable news Republican dropped this doozy:
People joke about a time machine. I'm no longer worried about going back to Germany in the '30s. I'll go back and tell Fred Trump to be a lot nicer to your kid because he's a little damaged and we're dealing with it every day because we have him in the white house. I disagree a little bit. I have the same view about the damage of institutions. There's a little bit of hope. I think people are starting to cook in that we have the crazy uncle temporarily in office.
Host and faux Republican Nicolle Wallace kept on the issue of Puerto Rico and diverted from Murphy’s bizarre aside by suggesting that the President has clashed with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz because she’s a woman and thus he’s sexist.
MoveOn.org’s Karine Jean-Pierre obviously agreed because that’s the modus operandi for shows like this (click “expand” to read more):
That gets under his skin even more, right? Because he has issues with women. I don't know, going back to Fred Trump, I have no idea. But it's clearly that as we saw last year, earlier in the year, they were going back and forth and every time she said something, he would go back and attack her in such an awful, vile way, but I think it goes back to what you were saying earlier, which is that we’re seeing the inner workings of this president. It is dangerous. It lacks empathy. It lacks care and he will never grow into the office that he holds. He debases the office that he holds and so there is no rock bottom. And it's not just the awful statements that are horrific and the tweets. It's also the policy. Let’s not forget that we learned this week that $10 million was taken out of FEMA to put into the detention and the separating of families at the border. I mean, so there is — so there's the lies, the statements and the policy and it all comes together and I appreciate both sides coming out. Paul Ryan speaking against what he said.
Of course, Wallace did nothing to correct her for the questionable claim about FEMA funding.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on September 13, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
September 13, 2018
4:29 p.m. EasternRICHARD STENGEL: I don't even know how to say it in a scientific or psychological way, but we're all, I mean, in a very basic level feel like you perceive something and then perceive a reaction to it and it feels like he is not even perceiving the basic things other people perceive and because he has so much denial, you know, that he is not able to see the things everybody else does which is incredibly dangerous for the President of the United States and dangerous for all of us.
MIKE MUPRHY: It's insecurity. I mean, he's such a case there. People joke about a time machine. I'm no longer worried about going back to Germany in the '30s. I'll go back and tell Fred Trump to be a lot nicer to your kid because he's a little damaged and we're dealing with it every day because we have him in the white house. I disagree a little bit. I have the same view about the damage of institutions. There's a little bit of hope. I think people are starting to cook in that we have the crazy uncle temporarily in office.
NICOLLE WALLACE: Yeah.
MURPHY: I'm hoping that their job —
WALLACE: So, you’re buying that two track presidency.
STENGEL: Mike, I absolutely hope you're right.
MURPHY: Yeah. It's the only shred of hope I've got about this.
WALLACE: Let me ask you about the fact that it's a woman that has particularly enraged this President one year after the original feud with said woman with whom he fought with while she was trying to protect the lives of her citizens. Mayor Cruz.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: That gets under his skin even more, right? Because he has issues with women. I don't know, going back to Fred Trump, I have no idea. But it's clearly that as we saw last year, earlier in the year, they were going back and forth and every time she said something, he would go back and attack her in such an awful, vile way, but I think it goes back to what you were saying earlier, which is that we’re seeing the inner workings of this president. It is dangerous. It lacks empathy. It lacks care and he will never grow into the office that he holds. He debases the office that he holds and so there is no rock bottom. And it's not just the awful statements that are horrific and the tweets. It's also the policy. Let’s not forget that we learned this week that $10 million was taken out of FEMA —
WALLACE: Yeah.
JEAN-PIERRE: — to put into the detention and the separating of families at the border. I mean, so there is — so there's the lies, the statements and the policy and it all comes together and I appreciate both sides coming out. Paul Ryan speaking against what he said.
WALLACE: He didn't — let me not give the Republicans more credit than they deserve. He did not stand flanked by dozens and dozens of Republicans. By and large, Republicans gave the president a pass and I want to understand why they do that.
