Heads were exploding over at MSNBC following Monday’s summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the 1:00 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC Live, the network’s national security analyst and former Obama official Evelyn Farkas lambasted the President’s performance as “despicable” and “outrageous,” and called for “mass resignations” from the Republican Party.
Stand-in host Stephanie Ruhle emptied all the barrels for her hour-long hyperventilation session, bringing in an endless avalanche of MSNBC and NBC analysts to vent their displeasure about the summit. NBC chief global correspondent Bill Neely gave his take from Moscow, and was quick to note that “a lot of heads were shaking in disbelief” at the joint news conference between the two leaders.
After some handwringing over the “soft power” Putin had garnered from a successful World Cup, Neely provided this summation: “That’s soft power that you cannot buy, and here is hard power. Here is Russia demonstrating that it has, if you like, an American President eating out of his hands.”
The segment also featured a phone interview with Associated Press White House reporter Jonathan Lemire, who was one of only two American journalists to ask Trump and Putin questions at the presser. Ruhle listened intently as Lemire recounted the “remarkable moment” in which he asked Putin to substantiate some of the more salacious details in the infamous Steele dossier.
Ruhle then brought in Farkas to predict how Republicans would react to the summit. Evidently having mistaken the interview for a physical, Farkas replied: “I am sick to my stomach. I am really feeling nauseous.”
“What we heard the President do was essentially side with an authoritarian leader against the United States, against our national security, against our democracy,” Farkas continued. “So, it’s despicable.”
After a lengthy tirade, the hyperventilating analyst finally circled back: “What do I expect Republicans to do, to get back to your original question? I don’t know but I certainly hope there are mass resignations.”
As of yet, no Republicans have resigned, and there is still no word on whether Farkas’s tummy is feeling better.
