MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch sure managed to pack an awful lot of anti-Trump venom into a thirty-second soliloquy. Appearing on Wednesday’s Deadline: White House, Deutsch asserted that “history will really frown on the Republicans” before describing President Trump as a “slimeball.” Deutsch’s rant came as part of a larger conversation about the House Democrats’s new obsession with money laundering when it comes to the Russia probe.
Host Nicolle Wallace began the segment by relaying a report from Axios that “House Democrats are planning a vast probe of President Trump and Russia, with a heavy focus on money laundering.” Wallace addressed her first question to Deutsch: “One of the people who lied to Congress is Michael Cohen. How helpful can he be in this line of questioning?”
Deutsch responded to her question by predicting that Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney, will be “very helpful.” After declaring that “Michael is looking forward to continued assistance and continued help,” Deutsch gleefully described Cohen as “one of the key people that will in the end of the day sing the fat lady for the President.”
Princeton University Professor and MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude agreed that Cohen “poses a significant threat to…the Trump presidency” before expressing his excitement that “we actually see the Congress exercising its constitutional oversight.” It seems unlikely that Glaude would have had the same excitement back when congressional Republicans exercised their “constitutional oversight” in the Obama administration.
MSNBC political analyst Zerlina Maxwell also seemed excited about “these investigations in Congress,” adding: “I think we are going to learn a lot more about that through these investigations in Congress, because Congress has a much broader mandate. It’s not bound by the regulations that Mueller’s operating under.”
After Jonathan Lemire of the Associated Press described President Trump as “someone who presents his own sense of reality” because of his disagreements with “the best and the brightest” in the intelligence community, Deutsch first asserted that “history will really frown on the Republicans,” Deutsch mocked President Trump for “sending American troops down, literally, like tinker toy soldiers” when “there’s no caravan coming.” Has he been living under a rock?
As NewsBusters has previously reported, cable news erected a “wall of falsehoods” about the first migrant caravan that departed from Central America several months ago; from denying that it existed at all to misrepresenting the makeup of the people in it. Even The New York Times published an article about a subsequent migrant caravan titled “A New Migrant Caravan Forms, and Old Battle Lines Harden.” Would Deutsch consider that “fake news?”
Deutsch proceeded to hurl a series of sophomoric insults at President Trump, calling him a “slimeball,” “liar,” and “con man.” So much for “when they go low, we go high.” Deutsch finished by branding congressional Republicans as the “real cowards,” arguing that “history will cast them not quite as villainous as Trump but as weak co-conspirators.”
A transcript of the relevant portion of Wednesday’s edition of Deadline: White House is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
02/13/19
04:24 PM
NICOLLE WALLACE: If Robert Mueller’s prosecutors are still just hinting at their focus in the collusion investigation, House Democrats are going public with their lines of questioning for this President. Axios reporting today that House Democrats are planning a vast probe of President Trump and Russia, with a heavy focus on money laundering. A Democratic Congress person telling them Congress plans to interview new witnesses and may circle back to earlier witnesses who they say stonewalled the investigation when Republicans were in power. This new, more aggressive chapter of the Russia investigation on Capitol Hill appears against the backdrop of a slew of investigations already launched by the House into President Trump, his policies and his business practices. Joining the conversation, MSNBC Political Analyst Zerlina Maxwell and Eddie Glaude, Princeton University Professor and MSNBC Contributor. I want to ask you, I mean, one of the people who lied to Congress is Michael Cohen. How helpful can he be to these lines of questioning?
DONNY DEUTSCH: I think very helpful.
WALLACE: When will he be there?
DEUTSCH: Well, here’s the question. You know, obviously, he was canceled. It was a lot…kind of a big brouhaha because he canceled the other day. He did have the flu. I will attest to that. I had spoken to him and he told me, I said, Jesus, can anything else happen to you? He was on Tamiflu, he was on Zithromax. I happened to speak to him that Saturday night and he was supposed to go to a bar mitzvah and he says I’m not going. He ended up meeting friends for dinner, probably bad optics, probably a bad choice. But, you know, the point is if you’re going in front of the Senate and you’ve got to prepare for 12 hours a day and travel back and forth, you’re just not afraid…he’s not dodging. He is going to speak to all three by the 28th. His, his spokesperson Lanny Davis has come out and said that and let’s not forget he volunteered initially and backed off with the whole, with the threats coming from Trump against his father-in-law. We will hear from him. All three of those committees will hear from him.
WALLACE: And if they’re looking at money laundering, does…is he the guy with the evidence that that happened?
DEUTSCH: Look, I think if you look back to it, I think there’s Weisselberg, there’s him, there, you know, there, we’ve talked many times on the show, it’s a very small circle. It’s his kids, it’s the CFO, it’s his attorney. There aren’t a lot else there. So I know that Michael is looking forward to continued assistance and continued help, and I think Michael will be one of the key people that will in the end of the day sing the fat lady for the President.
WALLACE: I think Donny’s being careful, it sounds like Michael Cohen knows where the bodies are buried and he’s going to draw Congress a map.
EDDIE GLAUDE: I think…absolutely. I think this is why he poses a significant threat to, to the Trump presidency. What’s really, I think, exciting about this current moment is that we actually see the Congress exercising its constitutional responsibility.
WALLACE: The oversight.
GLAUDE: They’re actually engaged in oversight. We knew it was coming, now it’s here. Let’s see what plays out.
WALLACE: Though it underscores…and, and maybe I’m the only one at the table that feels gutted by this but the fact that Republicans, who shouldn’t have had a dog in the fight. I mean, if, if the current President of either party was laundering money or was in cahoots with the Russians, they should have wanted to know. I mean, I don’t disagree with you but we have been talking, you know, for the last half hour about Donald Trump’s ongoing conduct being deeply suspicious.
ZERLINA MAXWELL: Right. But also this goes back to the campaign because we all remember that Mitch McConnell was told about what the Russians were doing and he was asked to be a part of a joint statement, a bipartisan statement…
WALLACE: Right.
MAXWELL: …essentially telling the American public what was taking place and he declined to do that. So I think that this goes back to the campaign. We don’t actually know the reason behind him not wanting to talk about it publicly. Obviously, there is the NRA connection that is still being investigated. And I think we’re going to learn a lot more about that through these investigations in Congress, because Congress has a much broader mandate. It’s not bound by the regulations that Mueller is operating under. I, I’m excited about the fact that Congress has essentially taken the reins of this intelligence committee and said, and oversight, oversight committee, and said we’re going to do a broad investigation. Because at the, at the end of the day, what they need to do is prevent this from happening again and the only way we’re going to get to that place is if we know exactly what happened in every single action that was taken by somebody in our elected government to either allow this hacking to take place, to allow it to continue or to not allow the American people to be told exactly what was happening. So I think that there’s a lot more that we’re going to find out through that line of investigation, that Mueller is not even tasked with finding out.
WALLACE: And I guess if you need any evidence that the President remains at odds with the evidence, with the facts, the blowup, you know, ten days ago with the intelligence community and it was broader than just Russia but on North Korea, Iran and Russia, he still either refuses to accept or has come to his own conclusions about Russia’s sort of the character, of, of, of Putin’s leadership or, you know, whatever it is, there is an ongoing conflict that many in ways will be a lot harder to hide behind as an incumbent President should he stand for re-election.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: No question. And he is someone who presents his own sense of reality. And he has, as we time and time again says that he has a better sense of, of a subject matter than the experts or his generals. I mean, just simply non…nonsensical claims.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMIRE: …nonsensical claims. But he is someone who repeatedly will do that. And in this case, whether it’s denial for self-preservation or just sort of or just put to forward this belief that in Trump’s America everything is right and therefore, the intelligence officers are wrong. But again, he’s choosing time and time again; the best, the best and the brightest of our government, really, he’s not listening to them, he’s not believing them, he’s not trusting them. He’s putting his own gut instinct first and that, that is not just worrisome, that’s bad for the nation.
DEUTSCH: Nicolle, history will really frown on the Republicans. You know, you just give one instance. How about sending troops down when there’s, there’s no caravan coming. Sending American troops down, literally, like tinker toy soldiers and we can go on and on and on and they stand by. And to me, you know, you see what you get with Trump. What you see is what you get. He’s a slimeball, he’s a liar, he’s a con man. These are all of the politicians that were voted to serve their constituencies and to me, they are the real cowards and history will cast them not quite as villainous as Trump but as weak co-conspirators and it’s very tragic.
GLAUDE: Well, you know, look, there’s all of that cash that he used to buy real estate; cash. I mean, I’m just trying to think how big the suitcases were to pay for what he paid for.
DEUTSCH: All cash. Let me just…
GLAUDE: All cash.
DEUTSCH: There were 14 buildings, he bought all-cash when basically nobody buys all cash. Nobody.
