In similar fashion to their fellow lefties at CNN, MSNBC Live was beside itself on Thursday afternoon after President Trump’s letter canceling Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s overseas visits to Afghanistan, Brussels, and Egypt. Host Katy Tur and assembled panelists blasted the “childish” “man baby” of a President for actions further illustrating the need for his removal via impeachment or the 25th Amendment.
New York Times columnist and Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer Bret Stephens fretted how he has children “in high school,” “middle school,” and “grade school and all of them have a better grasp of the rules of capitalization” than Trump. This was in reference to Trump capitalizing “Shutdown,” “Strong Border Security,” and “Southern Border.”
Stephens added that “this is the President who's losing....politically, he knows it and we know that — he knows that we know that he's losing,” so “the only word for this is childish.”
With no one to disagree, Stephens went on and on, hoping that this was another nail in the coffin of Trump’s presidency:
I mean, it’s kind of out of the nanny nanny poo-poo of grade school taunts. Yeah, what about your trip to Afghanistan? But the most important part is it’s ineffectual. People understand that's more important to put 800,000 Americans to work and prevent the further deterioration of government services and that deterioration is coming when federal courts stop working, when TSA workers go off the job then this minority gambit for border security, which everyone knows the President had an opportunity to pass for two years when he had a Republican control. So, what we are watching is the death rattle of the effects of Trump presidency, at least I hope.
Stephens also piled on how Trump’s letter was “incredibly foolish” but won’t be checked because “the Republican Party [has] essentially been a hostage of the Trumpian party and maybe they’ve developed a kind of Stockholm Syndrome where they feel they need to jump every time the President barks.”
Moments later, Michigan Democrat Dan Kildee sent Stephens, Tur, and Zerlina Maxwell bursting into laughter when he told them that Thursday afternoon saw Trump “essentially being a man-baby all over again.”
Asked to opine on whether the White House would respond to Kildee, White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell appropriately put to bed this nonsense: “I am going to pass on this one.”
Not one to miss out on the nonsense, Tur did a brief “I told you so” routine while Maxwell suggested that Trump’s behavior was doing the bidding of Russia (click “expand”):
TUR: You know, back in 2016, covering Donald Trump, there was a lot of talk that there was just no way he would win, blah, blah, blah. But if he did win, it would be complete and utter chaos. It would be complete and utter chaos. The government would not work. It wouldn’t work. Donald Trump has no idea what he's doing. This has come to pass.
MAXWELL: We are living through that. But I would also add another point is that I’ve long thought that the goals of the Russians, right? And this is not disconnected from the Russian story, the goal of the Russians, if you really — if read Malcolm Nance’s book The Plot to Destroy Democracy, their goal was to destabilize the West and to sow chaos in the American government. Anybody watching TV would agree that's that is exactly what is happening right now.
STEPHENS: Well, that — that’s — It’s operation Khaos with a “K.” He's bringing management skills he brought to Atlantic City to the United States government.
Tur then hailed Stephens’s latest column about Brexit and the government shutdown, allowing Stephens to expand:
[W]e have — we have a rudderless West. We are — we are adrift and we’re adrift in seas that aren’t placid because of Vladimir Putin, because of the threat from China, because of the bubbling up of populist and bigoted movement around the world from France to Charlottesville. This is — this is a frightening moment to have this kind of dysfunction at the core of American institutions.
As our friend David Rutz at the Washington Free Beacon wrote, Tur ended the segment by using this breaking story to personally lobby Kildee (under the guise of promoting an impeachment story in The Atlantic) to help impeach and remove the President from office. Here’s portions of that exchange (click “expand”):
TUR: [T]he cover story for The Atlantic in March is all about impeachment and all about how impeachment is a tool that is meant to be used, that the founders did not want it as something that would blow up democracy that it was something that would protect democracy and, right now, this debate that this country is having about Donald Trump's fitness for office is not getting an adequate airing because the adequate airing it should be getting should not be happening in the House with an impeachment hearing, with those articles brought to the table and hearings being had, not necessarily taking the President out of office, but it would establish a baseline for what is acceptable as for a President and what is not. What do you think of that?
KILDEE: I don't know if it will come of that because there’s so much writing of the investigation that Mr. Mueller is — is completing.
TUR: Is it all about the investigation, though? I mean, let's talk about his conduct in office, the way he speaks about people, the way he targets individual Americans. He's intimidating witnesses. He’s calling African nations s-hole countries. He’s blowing up alliances. He’s taking the notes away from an interpreter. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. I mean, do you — what more do the House need in order to debate fitness for office?
(....)
KILDEE: Just think about how the Framers who wrote this elegant document, anticipating the potential of a rogue presidency at some time, would respond to see these tools being set aside in the name of some acquiesce to a President that is the clearly psychologically unstable.
STEPHENS: Well, there’s another constitutional tool and it is in the 25th Amendment.
As my colleague Scott Whitlock explained, this all-too-predictable hysteria dragged on into the next hour on MSNBC.
To see the relevant transcript from January 17's MSNBC Live with Katy Tur, click “expand.”
MSNBC Live with Katy Tur
January 17, 2019
2:30 p.m. Eastern
BRET STEPHENS: I have a high school — a child in high school. I have a child in middle school and a child in grade school and all of them have a better grasp of the rules of capitalization than —
KATY TUR: You don’t capitalize Shutdown.
STEPHENS: — the President of the United States.
TUR: They did spell prerogative right which I was surprised.
STEPHENS: I was — I was — I was impressed by that, but I think that’s Grammarly.
ZERLINA MAXWELL: The bar is so low.
STEPHENS: Look, this is the President who's losing. He's losing politically, he knows it and we know that — he knows that we know that he's losing. This is — the only word for this is childish. I mean, it’s kind of out of the nanny nanny poo-poo of grade school taunts. Yeah, what about your trip to Afghanistan? But the most important part is it’s ineffectual. People understand that's more important to put 800,000 Americans to work and prevent the further deterioration of government services and that deterioration is coming when federal courts stop working, when TSA workers go off the job then this minority gambit for border security, which everyone knows the President had an opportunity to pass for two years when he had a Republican control.
MAXWELL: He was offered a lot of money for his border wall.
STEPHENS: So, what we are watching is the death rattle of the effects of Trump presidency, at least I hope.
TUR: What do you think, Zerlina?
MAXWELL: I just — I agree this is very childish and I also want to piggyback on something that the Congressman said. Where is Mitch McConnell? We haven’t — I don’t think his name has been mentioned yet and he is the person that can end the shutdown. That is — that is just a fact and so if we skip over that point, we’re missing the forest for the trees because he can —
TUR: Mitch McConnell can send him a bill and they can over ride the President's veto.
MAXWELL: — yes, so why is he not doing that? Why is he not going his job? Because that is actually what he's supposed to do. If you are going to be the leader of a party in congress, you need to run the government. Make sure it stays opened and make sure these folks are getting paid. There is no reason people are going to work without paychecks. That's ridiculous.
TUR: So, what is McConnell’s — what is McConnell’s game here? Why does he think it’s better to stand with the President on this?
STEPHENS: Well, I think it’s incredibly foolish. Look, for the last two and a half years, the Republican Party essentially been a hostage of the Trumpian party and maybe they’ve developed a kind of Stockholm Syndrome where they feel they need to jump every time the President barks. But you know, never mind — never mind the case for government, think about the purely conservative belief that we have coequal branches of government that Congress is a coequal branch and it has to assumes its rightful constitutional responsibilities. The congressman made an incredibly important and valid point which is this did not require the ascent of the President — does not require the ascent of the President to end the shutdown. Congress used to over ride Presidential vetoes. They did so frequently during the Ford administration, they’ve done so at other times. They can do so now and help 800,000 people feed their children.
TUR: Congressman, the White House says this was not a tic-for-tac, that this was a good faith effort by the President of the United States to keep the Speaker in town in order to negotiate on the shutdown. That's per reporting from Kelly O’Donnell, who’s still with us, Hallie Jackson and Peter Alexander. Do you think that this is a good faith effort? Could you see it that way?
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN DAN KILDEE (MI): Obviously not. It’s ridiculous. I was in the meeting this morning when the Speaker said we’re going to be here on Tuesday, ready to work. That’s a decision she’s already made. We’re ready to take up any legislation that we think the President may sign or any legislation with sufficient votes to pass it without the President's signature. This is not — this the President essentially being a man-baby all over again. [PANEL LAUGHS]
TUR: Kelly O’Donnell, do you think the White House is going to respond on the President being a man-baby.
KELLY O’DONNELL: I am going to pass on this one. [PANEL LAUGHS]
(....)
2:37 p.m. Eastern
TUR: You know, back in 2016, covering Donald Trump, there was a lot of talk that there was just no way he would win, blah, blah, blah. But if he did win, it would be complete and utter chaos. It would be complete and utter chaos. The government would not work. It wouldn’t work. Donald Trump has no idea what he's doing.
STEPHENS: Yeah, we’ll he’s brought the same —
TUR: This has come to pass.
MAXWELL: We are living through that. But I would also add another point is that I’ve long thought that the goals of the Russians, right? And this is not disconnected from the Russian story, the goal of the Russians, if you really — if read Malcolm Nance’s book The Plot to Destroy Democracy, their goal was to destabilize the West and to sow chaos in the American government. Anybody watching TV would agree that's that is exactly what is happening right now.
STEPHENS: Well, that — that’s — It’s operation Khaos with a “K.” He's bringing management skills he brought to Atlantic City to the United States government.
TUR: It kind of directly leads into your — your column from — what was it — today that you wrote this.
STEPHENS: Yeah.
TUR: Your column about Brexit and about the U.S. and —
STEPHENS: Yeah, I mean, we have — we have a rudderless West. We are — we are adrift and we’re adrift in seas that aren’t placid because of Vladimir Putin, because of the threat from China, because of the bubbling up of populist and bigoted movement around the world from France to Charlottesville. This is — this is a frightening moment to have this kind of dysfunction at the core of American institutions. You think of World War II when you had FDR and Churchill, this is a very different war.
TUR: I have one other question for the congressman because the cover of The Atlantic, the cover story for The Atlantic in March is all about impeachment and all about how impeachment is a tool that is meant to be used, that the founders did not want it as something that would blow up democracy that it was something that would protect democracy and, right now, this debate that this country is having about Donald Trump's fitness for office is not getting an adequate airing because the adequate airing it should be getting should not be happening in the House with an impeachment hearing, with those articles brought to the table and hearings being had, not necessarily taking the President out of office, but it would establish a baseline for what is acceptable as for a President and what is not. What do you think of that?
KILDEE: I don't know if it will come of that because there’s so much writing of the investigation that Mr. Mueller is — is completing.
TUR: Is it all about the investigation, though? I mean, let's talk about his conduct in office, the way he speaks about people, the way he targets individual Americans. He's intimidating witnesses. He’s calling African nations s-hole countries. He’s blowing up alliances. He’s taking the notes away from an interpreter. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. I mean, do you — what more do the House need in order to debate fitness for office?
KILDEE: Well, those are all, obviously, behaviors that are outside the norms of common decency, let alone the President of the United States, but I think the weight of the Mueller report is something that we ought to consider. But I want to say one more thing. There is a constitutional way — a constitutional provision to correct a rogue presidency short of impeachment and it is Article One to operationalize. For the people elected to the House and the Senate simply to do the job that the Framers expected of them and the thing that has been most disconcerting to me, even with the President's horrendous behavior is the acquiesce to that behavior by the Senate Republicans who seem to be willing essentially to hand over the franchise that their voters proved to them to Donald Trump to use at his whim. Mitch McConnell. Seriously, this is amazing. He acts as though he is an employee of Donald Trump. He — he has said, he will not take action without the permission of the President. Just think about how the Framers who wrote this elegant document, anticipating the potential of a rogue presidency at some time, would respond to see these tools being set aside in the name of some acquiesce to a President that is the clearly psychologically unstable.
STEPHENS: Well, there’s another constitutional tool and it is in the 25th amendment.
KILDEE: That is right. Of course, the President surrounded himself with people who at least seem to be, at least this point, primarily sycophants. So, the 25th Amendment is little more difficult to operationalize. But just a few steps away from where I stand right now in the united States senate, rests the complete authorities to end the problem that we have right now and exercise our duties.
