With all the dread of a man timorously tiptoeing across a minefield, Donny Deutsch eventually made his point: Elizabeth Warren's "tone and manner" is too off-putting to permit her to win the presidency.
Poor Donny was very clearly afraid of running afoul of Mika Brzezinski in particular and feminists and identity-politics fans in general. He knew the feminists think women are somehow punished by the liberal media, and lamented that this is where we still are in 2019. But after stating that Warren doesn't have the "stuff" to beat President Trump, Deutsch eventually made his point, suggesting that Warren is too strident to be "digestible." All while emphasizing that it was "not fair" that Bernie Sanders, and even Kamala Harris, could get away with it while Warren couldn't.
Joe Scarborough got so frustrated by Deutsch's false starts that he began to ditch Donny and move onto another topic. That prompted Deutsch to finally spit out his view about Warren.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/17/19
6:06 am EDT
DONNY DEUTSCH: Her struggle is going to be between message and messenger. Because, to your point, the message--I was watching her on Lawrence [O'Donnell's show] the other night and it’s just boom jab, jab, jab, she’s got it. The challenge she has, and this is just as a brander and a marketer, is [sighs] I just do not think she has the stuff to take on Donald Trump.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Why not?
DEUTSCH: Two reasons. I think that at the end of the day if Donald Trump can paint anybody as socialist -- he can use the S-word -- whether it's fair or not. You can’t use that on Biden, no matter how you slice it, you can’t. And I do think that, um, [sighs] I want to get this the right way before Mika attacks me.
SCARBOROUGH: No, no . Why don't we just go -- and the Fox News poll also shows --
DEUTSCH: She’s tough. Bernie can get away with a certain stridentness that is much more challenging for a woman.
SCARBOROUGH: Because he’s man.
DEUTSCH: It’s not fair but it is. And I think that’s the challenge, where I think Senator Harris’s force as a woman is -- and this just comes from a lot of research in marketing -- Hillary went against it -- is much easier digestible for men and women. This is where we still are I think in the year 2019. It’s not fair--I'm just calling it from the sidelines.
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: I think you're right, Donny, but why? Why is it more digestible from Kamala Harris than it is from Elizabeth Warren?
DEUTSCH: Because we’re still only 30 or 40 years into women's —
PRZYBYLA: No, but I mean, what is it specifically about her? Because if it's about all women --
WILLIE GEIST: Kamala.
DEUTSCH: Oh, Kamala ?
PRZYBYLA:Yeah.
DEUTSCH: There’s a certain, um —
SCARBOROUGH: You know, it could be that she’s a prosecutor and she had to play to juries all the time and might have more experience how to play to a crowd.
DEUTSCH: It’s tone and manner. In advertising, it's tone and manner. Once again, she’s amazing. You got to give her everything.
BRZEZINSKI: Elizabeth Warren.
DEUTSCH: Yes.
BRZEZINSKI: She is amazing.
DEUTSCH: I’m just saying as voters, and I, there is a, there’s a factor there that -- it's so much more challenging for women to navigate.
