Talk about a contrast. On Wednesday, MSNBC’s Hardball offered two snippets that were both random and couldn’t have been any more different. In the first instance, there was former Apprentice contestant, former White House official, and now anti-Trump hero Omarosa Manigault Newman suggesting that Kellyanne Conway was a bad wife for not quitting the White House and rallying to her husband George’s side on his feud with the President.
And in the other footnote, there was host Chris Matthews strategizing with Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on removing President Trump from office via the 25th Amendment.
First to the media-fueled feud. George Conway has engaged in a game of poke the bear by repeatedly tweeting about the President being mentally ill until they goaded Trump into responding earlier this week.
“What is he trying to do? Drive a wedge? I know everybody knows what his politics is. Is he trying to drive a wedge in a family here,” Matthews wondered, suggesting that he’s somehow intentionally trying to tear the Conways apart.
Always willing to create drama, harbor resentment, and maintain a set of enemies, Omarosa questioned the President’s standing to criticize the husband of a key adviser because of “his inability to be faithful to his wives and how he's treated Melania particularly.”
Omarosa also illustrated her seeming disdain for Kellyanne as she suggested that Kellyanne was failing to be a respectable wife because she hasn’t quit in protest over the feud between her husband and her boss:
But what I think what we’re seeing is more from Kellyanne, a lack of commitment to her marriage. If anyone insulted John Allen Newman, I would not be working for them any longer. That's where the line should be drawn but it says more about Kellyanne staying and working for Donald Trump who insults her husband and the father of her children.
Okay, sure, Omarosa. As the saying goes, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones.
In the next block, Matthews brought on Raskin and, in a segment that originally dealt with the anticipated Mueller report, Raskin started down the path of talking about the President’s mental state and Matthews was perfectly fine with this detour (click “expand”):
RASKIN: We can’t take much more of this because the President is so stressed out and he’s stressing out the whole country.
MATTHEWS: Let’s talk about that. He acts like a cat on a hot tin roof, like this is getting hotter and hotter and this weekend 50 some tweets. The last couple days going crazy over a man who died seven months ago in a quote of a ghost-like — he’s like he’s — I don't know. He's gas lighting himself is what it looks like.
RASKIN: I think it's a serious problem. I mean, to me it underscores the importance of having a structure in place to deal with not necessarily this President but some president not being able to discharge the powers and duties of the office and that's what the 25th Amendment, which was authored by Birch Bayh, who died last Thursday is all about. He and Bobby Kennedy put it in the wake of the Kennedy assassination.
Raskin elaborated on how it’s perfectly well and good to have this discussion about the President because “in the nuclear age, we need make sure that the President is somebody who's physically and mentally fit to the task”, and that a President could be taken out by either “the Vice President and majority of the cabinet or the Vice President and a majority of the body set up by Congress.”
When the D.C.-suburb Democrat suggested that “we need to have that body for this presidency and every future president,” things got scary as Matthews wondered if we should have “a sort of shadow cabinet” and Raskin agreed.
For all the talk about there being a Deep State, that sure sounds like a group of all-powerful, unelected group of individuals that could overturn the will of the people at a moment’s notice!
Raskin then elaborated (click “expand”):
RASKIN: The legislation that I drafted has 17 members on it. Half of them will be former presidents, vice presidents, attorneys general, secretary of states, half of them physicians and psychiatrists. A 17th member who’s a chair that's chosen by this bipartisan, bicameral body, but I think we got to take seriously this problem. I mean, I know it's, you know, the source of a lot of amusement, the President’s mental state, but obviously, mental health is not a laughing matter and if it continues to decline, we’ve a serious problem.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on March 20, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
March 20, 2019
7:12 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: What is he trying to do? Drive a wedge? I know everybody knows what his politics is. Is he trying to drive a wedge in a family here?
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Well, let’s clarify something. During the campaign, George Conway was all throughout our campaign offices. He walked around Trump Tower quite frequently and sometimes with the children. So, for Trump to say he didn’t know George that’s a complete lie, but I think it's again part of this reality thing and he also said that George Conway was a husband of from hell and I think that's ironic coming from Donald Trump and his inability to be faithful to his wives and how he's treated Melania particularly. But what I think what we’re seeing is more from Kellyanne, a lack of commitment to her marriage. If anyone insulted John Allen Newman, I would not be working for them any longer. That's where the line should be drawn but it says more about Kellyanne staying and working for Donald Trump who insults her husband and the father of her children.
MATTHEWS: I want to end with Jon. Jon Lemire. What is it — I know this calls for psycho information. But why do people put up with this? We went through Access Hollywood and everybody said they’re going to quit. That was the end off the line. Everyone is going to get off the bus. Kellyanne won’t get off the bus even though he’s attacking her husband. What's this sticky glue that keeps people tucked — so tucked in bed with Trump?
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Well, I think it probably varies person to person. Some that I’ve spoken to surrounding the President, it’s a few different things. Some do believe they're making a difference for the country. I think, for others, they’re perhaps a little more reluctant to admit this, but it's proximity to power, it’s being part of the show, being in the west wing keeps them there. But you're right. Very few — there’ve been very moments where a staffer has quit out of principal. Gary Cohn did, but that was over tariffs, not because of something the President said or did. Remember, he stuck by him for what he said after Charlottesville, but certainly there’s a sense among White House aides that the President has been particularly sort of distracted and they’re worried about that as of late and there’s a few things going on here at once. Not just this but the attacks against McCain and George Conway. But let’s remember the weekend tweetstorm with 70 odd tweets —
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
LEMIRE: — in two and a half days, which really seemed to display a lack of focus. I think the impending release of the Mueller report, which could, at this point, any day or any week is part of it, the growing investigations from the House Democrats, another fact that the President’s complained to people around him that he's being blamed for the shooting in New Zealand and even over the weekend, let’s remember. He views Fox News as a — it's a safe harbor, if you will, amid all of the complaints against the media and even Fox was kind of rough on him this weekend, including suspending Judge Jeanine Pirro, one of his favorites, one of the most pro-Trump anchors they have and he was upset about that too, to leaving Fox News to be on the receiving end of a couple of these scornful tweets, which is not something that we often see.
MATTHEWS: Omarosa, I get the sense he looks at the world right now. The blue sky is all behind him, dark clouds are coming.
MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Yes, he knows that the walls are closing in on him and there's nothing good that's going to come out of the Mueller report, but also all of the investigations that will center on him, but also his children and his family.
(....)
7:22 p.m. Eastern
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN JAMIE RASKIN (MD): We can’t take much more of this because the President is so stressed out and he’s stressing out the whole country.
MATTHEWS: Let’s talk about that. He acts like a cat on a hot tin roof, like this is getting hotter and hotter and this weekend 50 some tweets. The last couple days going crazy over a man who died seven months ago in a quote of a ghost-like — he’s like he’s — I don't know. He's gas lighting himself is what it looks like.
RASKIN: I think it's a serious problem. I mean, to me it underscores the importance of having a structure in place to deal with not necessarily this President but some president not being able to discharge the powers and duties of the office and that's what the 25th Amendment, which was authored by Birch Bayh, who died last Thursday is all about. He and Bobby Kennedy put it in the wake of the Kennedy assassination.
MATTHEWS: If you’re on the cabinet right now, would you put him in for the 25th Amendment? Will you execute?
RASKIN: Well, the cabinet's not going to do it and the —
MATTHEWS: But if you were on the cabinet, would you do it given his performance lately?
RASKIN: I would make sure there's a structure in place for a real discussion. Now, right now, they’re trying to crack on down any discussions. All these people who are refugees from the administration who are writing books say people talk about the 25th Amendment and then go after them and say this is inappropriate to even talk about which conflicts completely with the whole purpose of the 25th Amendment, which is in the nuclear age, we need make sure that the President is somebody who's physically and mentally fit to the task. But the part of the 25th Amendment that's unremarked is it says the Vice President and majority of the cabinet or the Vice President and a majority of the body set up by Congress can act to transfer power.
MATTHEWS: Oh, you think we should have that body set up.
RASKIN: I think we need to have that body for this presidency and every future president.
MATTHEWS: Just a sort of shadow cabinet that sits there?
RASKIN: The legislation that I drafted has 17 members on it. Half of them will be former presidents, vice presidents, attorneys general, secretary of states, half of them physicians and psychiatrists. A 17th member who’s a chair that's chosen by this bipartisan, bicameral body, but I think we got to take seriously this problem. I mean, I know it's, you know, the source of a lot of amusement, the President’s mental state, but obviously, mental health is not a laughing matter and if it continues to decline, we’ve a serious problem.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
