Former Reagan administration official Bruce Bartlett joined the opening panel on MSNBC’s All In Thursday night and put forth the notion that Republicans in Washington and particularly Congress are responsible for the rise of Donald Trump by creating an “authoritarian, fascistic attitude that we're going to get stuff done.”
Someone who can always be counted on to serve as the token Republican (who’s since become a devout liberal), Bartlett began by telling host Chris Hayes that the current state of the presidential campaign could be traced to “the gridlock the Republicans have created this Washington where they refuse to even consider a presidential nomination of the Supreme Court.”
Bartlett complained that stands such as this one have acted as “the sort of thing that creates this fertile ground for this sort of authoritarian, fascistic attitude that we're going to get stuff done” and instead of “pay[ing] attention norms, we're not going to pay attention to the law either and I think we're headed down that road very rapidly.”
Moments later, Bartlett painted much the same picture that journalists like Mark Leibovich spun on Friday’s CBS This Morning in that those on the right will be damned to oblivion no matter where Trump secures the Republican presidential nomination or not:
Oh, I think sheer panic because they understand whether Trump gets the nomination or doesn't get the nomination, they are royally screwed and what I think they are really afraid of is they will do so poorly at the top of the ticket that it's going to endanger Republicans all the way down to the Senate level, the governor level, members of the Congress. They're staring into the abyss's of a total wipe out.
Concerning the likelihood of a contested Republican National Convention, Bartlett agreed with the idea that party leaders could very well pull the rug out from under Trump and deny him the nomination, but it would immediately cause Trump to spend the remainder of the election cycle trashing the nominee:
[H]e's going to go against this party and do everything in his power to destroy it cause we know he can get on TV any time he wants to and that's all he's going to do for the next six months or however many months after the convention is bash the Republican nominee.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on March 24 can be found below.
MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes
March 24, 2016
8:07 p.m. Eastern
BRUCE BARLTETT: I think that the gridlock the Republicans have created this Washington where they refuse to even consider a presidential nomination of the Supreme Court is the sort of thing that creates this fertile ground for this sort of authoritarian, fascistic attitude that we're going to get stuff done. We're not only not going to pay attention norms, we're not going to pay attention to the law either and I think we're headed down that road very rapidly.
(....)
8:10 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS HAYES: What, Bruce do you think is going through the minds of the folks who, to the extent, run the Republican Party run the Republican Party Reince Preibus, Paul Ryan as they watch this? I mean, there was this moment there's a bit of premature bubble of enthusiasm and I even felt it a little wit, not enthusiasm but that night, I think, of South Carolina when he did that press conference it was very general election pivot looking. That seems gone now. I mean, the guy is just what he is. He's conducting himself that way. What's going through their minds as they watch this play out?
BARLTETT: Oh, I think sheer panic because they understand whether Trump gets the nomination or doesn't get the nomination, they are royally screwed and what I think they are really afraid of is they will do so poorly at the top of the ticket that it's going to endanger Republicans all the way down to the Senate level, the governor level, members of the Congress. They're staring into the abyss's of a total wipe out.
(....)
8:13 p.m. Eastern
BARLTETT: Well, I think that they — the powers that be could pull the rug out from under him if they want to. There's lots of ways that delegates can be — lose their credentials. There's delegate fights and things that — rule changes but I think it's all futile because if somehow or other, if they put somebody, anybody other than Trump, rather, in as the nominee, he's going to go against this party and do everything in his power to destroy it cause we know he can get on TV any time he wants to and that's all he's going to do for the next six months or however many months after the convention is bash the Republican nominee.
