It seems as though Chuck Todd and folks at NBC have had enough of Republican efforts to stop their beloved Donald Trump from getting the nomination. To kick off his political discussion Sunday on Meet the Press Todd equated the Republican election cycle to the five stages of grief. Todd stated that the party had already gone through the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. And all that is left to do is for #NeverTrump to roll over and accept it.
Most of Todd’s panel of professional journalists and flimsy Republicans agreed with him. MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid threatened the Republican Party with a warning of what would happen if trump was not the nominee. “Let's say it's 30 percent to 40 percent of the Republican base that are white blue collar voters, white working class voters who are clearly enraged primarily at the Republican party. Any outcome but Trump may alienate those voters in such a way that it dooms the party in November no matter what,” Reid stated.
Katie Packer the Chair of Our Principles PAC, which is an anti-Trump super PAC, was the lone dissenter on the MTP panel of six. Packer countered Reid’s threat, saying there is just as much frustration going the other way and the rest of the party may not be there for Trump in the fall:
“I think it's naïve though to suggest that you’re not going to have 35 to 40 percent of the party stays home if it's Trump. I mean, we’ve got real data to demonstrate that. There is real frustration and people saying, “I’m not going to vote for Trump in a general election, even though I’m a Republican.”
The panel didn’t like the taste of that fact and dug into Packer. Reid equated her strategy as replacing something with nothing, even though there are two others in the race. “Republican” commentator Nicolle Wallace said the whole situation was the party trying to pick how they will lose in November. The idea that the Republicans are destined to lose to Hillary Clinton are far from substantiated, since there are polls showing both Ted Cruz and John Kasich beating Clinton.
Trump’s opposition has every right to put up as much of a fight as they want to. Claiming that they stop and accept him as the nominee is just an extension of the preferential treatment Trump has been receiving from the media.
Partial transcript below:
NBC
Meet the Press
April 24, 2016
10:32:01 AM EasternCHUCK TODD: It is no stretch to conclude that when it comes to Donald Trump, the Republican Party has slowly been working its way through the classic five stages of grief. The first one was denial. “”Trump can't be taken seriously.” The second one, anger. “What makes this guy think he is even a Republican or a conservative anyway?” The third, bargaining. “Let's take it to the voters. They'll reject him, right?’ The fourth, depression. “Oh, my god. He's actually winning this thing.” And now, the fifth stage, the hardest one of all, acceptance.
…
10:41:19 AM Eastern
JOY-ANN REID: But isn't the main problem here though, that any of the solutions that you would come up with that's not Donald Trump is going to take that-- let's say it's 30 percent to 40 percent of the Republican base that are white blue collar voters, white working class voters who are clearly enraged primarily at the Republican party.
Any outcome but Trump may alienate those voters in such a way that it dooms the party in November no matter what. I think the problem is that the party is the problem. It’s the 40-some odd years of promises that were not fulfilled even by the Tea Party because eventually they even went Washington to a lot of these voters. So, I think these voters are so angry that you almost have to give them Donald Trump in order to satiate that anger.
KATIE PACKER: Well, I think it's naïve though to suggest that you’re not going to have 35 to 40 percent of the party stays home if it's Trump. I mean, we’ve got real data to demonstrate that. There is real frustration and people saying, “I’m not going to vote for Trump in a general election, even though I’m a Republican.”
