After years as an analyst on CNN, Steve Cortes is a free agent on cable TV. On Saturday night, MSNBC's Joy Reid put Cortes next to what she called "an all-Republican panel" -- former congressman David Jolly, strategist Rick Wilson, and Tom Nichols. Impeachment was on the table.
After Wilson denounced the president as the "First Thug," Cortes smiled and said "I'd encourage you to go to a Trump rally because you'd feel nothing but patriotism." Wilson shot back "If I want to do that, I'll just watch Nuremberg videos." Then he moved on to comparing Trump to Saddam Hussein.
RICK WILSON: Donald Trump does not inspire fear for no reason. He does it deliberately. It is a deliberate strategy. It is used frequently by authoritarian leaders in this world. The members of the Senate and the members of the House know the fundamental rule. Don't be the first guy to stop clapping when Saddam is speaking. Don't be the first guy to put your head up, or it's going to get cut off, and that has happened to an awful lot of Republicans. You know, we lost 42 Republican seats in 2018, and a lot of those people were the ones who dared to say something about trump and then got slammed from the right by trump's people and lost their seats. That is a -- he is a guy who governs entirely by fear in the minds of those people in the House and the Senate.
When Reid gave him a turn, Cortes said unlikeable elitists like Rick are the reason Trump won in 2016 and will again in 2020.
STEVE CORTES: So Rick continues with these insanely insulting terms. And by the way, I will tell you this. I wear your scorn as a badge of honor. I really do. And this kind of condescension from unlikable elites is one of the reasons we won in 2016 and a reason we're going to win again. But for you to compare hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been to these Trump rallies, these wonderful Trump rallies, for you to compare them to Nazis, for you to call us crazies, the last time I was on TV with you, you called Trump voters toothless rubes.
For you to use all of these terms of derision and all this condescension, it only reinforces the need unfortunately that we have, the need in this country to have the electoral revolt of the America First movement. Yes, we needed somebody to lead that movement who is a fighter. And yes at times he is indelicate and brash, okay? He at times can be offensive,
JOY REID -- Hold on --
CORTES: But he has also produced results for this country like we have ever seen before in only three short years, particularly for the people who needed it most, working class people, minorities, people with less education, and all the while kept America out of disastrous foreign intervention. That is the America first agenda.
