On Wednesday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer feared that President Trump was only focused on pleasing his supporters rather than reaching out to “the entire country.” Political analyst Nicolle Wallace voiced similar concerns and urged the Republican to move left.
Lauer began the exchange by fretting: “It feels to a lot of people like this president is still speaking to his base and not the entire country. That works during a campaign, what's the danger of it when you're president?” Wallace melodramatically proclaimed: “Well, as you all know from covering September 11th, when you need to speak to the whole country about something as dire and tragic as a terrorist attack....credibility was so desperately needed because we had to communicate with people...”
Fill-in co-host Maria Shriver wondered if there was “anything he could do that would actually grow that base?” In part, Wallace advised him to abandon conservatives:
There is a big chunk of the opposition that will never get behind him. But there are a lot of voters in the middle who could be softened if he softened some of his rhetoric, if he toned down some of his statements at are easily picked apart as lies, and if he were to moderate on some positions. During the Republican primary he had nice things to say about Planned Parenthood. I mean, there’s always room for a politician. Voters are incredibly forgiving.
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Here is a full transcript of the February 8 segment:
7:11 AM ET
MATT LAUER: Let's go to Today's Fact Check now, focusing on the President's claim about that national murder rate being at a 47-year high. MSNBC’s chief legal correspondent Ari Melber looked into that. Ari, good morning to you.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump and the National Murder Rate; What is it and Did President Make False Claim?]
ARI MELBER: Good morning, Matt. That's right, we looked at President Trump's claim there about the murder rate. In actuality, the FBI statistics show the murder rate per capita here nationally is actually about a 45-year low. Now, there are plenty of places where there is a real problem. You look at cities like New Orleans, Baltimore, Detroit and St. Louis, murder remains a real problem there. In addition, a jump from 2014 to 2015 we see in the national murder rate, although it is still about half what it was in the 1990s.
LAUER: Interesting. Is that where, if we're going to give President Trump a benefit of the doubt, can you say that maybe he conflated these two things? It was a decades-high jump between 2014 and 15 and he may have said it was – “We are at decades-high numbers”?
MELBER: Certainly possible, Matt. There have been claims by this president and other politicians that are totally made up. This isn't one of them. There is an issue here with that one jump in the rate and there are cities, some big cities, where the murder rate remains intractable, while nationally, it is declining.
LAUER: Alright, Ari, come on over here, join the conversation. Nicole Wallace is with us as well. Nicolle, this isn't the first example where we've heard the President say something that’s just not true. We've heard his surrogates do things that are similar. It feels to a lot of people like this president is still speaking to his base and not the entire country. That works during a campaign, what's the danger of it when you're president?
NICOLLE WALLACE: Well, as you all know from covering September 11th, when you need to speak to the whole country about something as dire and tragic as a terrorist attack, or about something logistical. I mean, for months after 9/11, anthrax had shown up in the mail and the government’s credibility was so desperately needed because we had to communicate with people about something that everyone does, “It’s safe to get your mail. Here’s what we’re doing.” So you need that credibility.
Here's the other thing about Donald Trump. He wants to be liked by more people than his base. Some of his surrogates like to spin, “We have all we need here.” But Donald Trump is a man who is a television personality, was obsessed with ratings. And as a politician, is obsessed with that approval number, obsessed with growing his base of support.
MARIA SHRIVER: Do you think there's anything he could do that would actually grow that base? That he could reach out and people from the other side, who seem so divided, could hear him and say, “Whoa, wait a second, I actually like the guy”?
WALLACE: There is a big chunk of the opposition that will never get behind him. But there are a lot of voters in the middle who could be softened if he softened some of his rhetoric, if he toned down some of his statements at are easily picked apart as lies, and if he were to moderate on some positions. During the Republican primary he had nice things to say about Planned Parenthood. I mean, there’s always room for a politician. Voters are incredibly forgiving.
LAUER: One of the most divisive things he’s done since taking office, Ari, is signing this executive order on immigration. So now this is in the hands of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Based on the comments those judges made yesterday, where is this likely to go?
MELBER: Several of their questions left the impression that they are comfortable with a temporary blockage while this moves through the courts. And that is normal if the plaintiffs, if the challengers have some likelihood of success on the merits. Ultimately, as you were mentioning at the top of the show, this is likely the first big clash that could make it to the Supreme Court under President Trump. The overlap here is the numbers we just talked about there on crime, they’re from the FBI, but he didn't seem to initially consult the FBI. The numbers on immigration here, we rely on DHS, on border security. We're hearing from those agencies that he didn't consult them at first either.
LAUER: Alright, Ari Melber, Nicolle Wallace.
WALLACE: Thank you, guys.
LAUER: Thank you both very much.
