"Warning for Democratic Viewers: today's episode of Deadline White House may cause nausea, depression, and self-harm ideation."
That's what MSNBC might have been advised to broadcast prior to Wednesday afternoon's show. Because what was predicted was pure doom and despair for Democrats if the party continues to pass on criticizing Bernie Sanders, not address his socialist proposals head on, and refuse to work to defeat him.
Before diving in, check out the screencap! Wallace literally shut her eyes in horror as she imagined Bernie and Bloomberg tearing the party apart over the next several months!
At any rate, Real Clear Politics editor A.B. Stoddard was first to offer a grim diagnosis. She predicted that, at Wednesday's Democrat debate in Nevada, the candidates are sure to focus their fire on Mike Bloomberg, letting Bernie Sanders off the hook even though the "avowed socialist" has failed in the two early contests to turn out a broad coalition.
By refusing to take on Sanders, Stoddard predicted:
[Sanders will] continue to dodge all of this stuff while the entire party and all the candidates turn their fire on Mike Bloomberg and give this guy, this avowed socialist who’s going to get slaughtered in the general election, a free pass tonight in this debate while everyone freaks out about Mike’s billions and his ads and his NDAs, would be a fatal mistake for this party. I am sure they're going to make it, but I think the candidates will really fail, and they will elect Bernie Sanders, they will nominate him and give President Trump not only a second term but a huge mandate if they spend all three or two hours or whatever it is tonight focused on how much they don't like Mike Bloomberg.
Next up was Never Trumper and failed McCain campaign head Steve Schmidt, who said that a Sanders candidacy, given his plan to take private health insurance policies away from 150 million Americans, would be a "death sentence" for the Democrats.
Here was Schmidt's rant in full, which was a refreshing departure from his usual hysterics about Trump (click "expand"):
When we talk about vile, online supporters and breaking promises and shattering norms and being untransparent, remind you of anyone? Alright and that's a big problem for Democrats. And I — what I would say about all of this is we all sat here in this room on election night and we were shocked. The world was shocked when Donald Trump was elected.
(....)
We have watched for three years the shattering of norms, the attacks on the institutions, and at the end of it, now about ten months out from the election, what the Democratic Party has produced is a 78-year-old socialist from Vermont who is picking up steam and is going to be an unstoppable force before very much longer on the way to the nomination And so the theory that there is some great base of people yearning for socialism in the United States of America is a fever dream and a fantasy. Here's the deal. There's literally no one in this country who interacts with government. Not at a local level a county level a state level, not at a federal level who comes out of that experience — thank God that was great. Terrific. I want to put these people in charge of more stuff, give them more money, more power, more control and he will be carrying forward into this election some of the most unpopular positions on issues that any candidate ever has. He wants to take away private health insurance from 150 million people. Go tell those union workers in Michigan, and Pennsylvania, those union men and women, that they’re going to lose their private health insurance. It is a death sentence for the party and it will lead to Donald Trump’s re-election in my view.
Finally, John Heilemann painted a picture of Bernie and Bloomberg "slugging it out from now until June." Heilemann was skeptical that the Democrat party could be put back together in such circumstances.
Of course, while Dems will be pulling the blankets over their heads in terror, conservatives will delight in watching this sort of total Democrat meltdown.
Note: the most bizarre moment occurred when former Dem congresswoman Donna Edwards suggested that the nomination was still Joe Biden's "to lose." Right. And the Super Bowl was still the 49ers to lose, trailing by 11 points with less than a minute left and the Chiefs in possession of the ball.
Here's the transcript (click "expand").
MSNBC's Deadline White House
02/19/20
4:08 p.m. EasternA.B. STODDARD: Well, unlike Donna, I’m not a Democrat, so I'm liberated to jump all over the Democratic Party. [PANEL LAUGHS] They’ve waited way too long to get on the stop-Bernie train, or whatever John Heilemann is describing. The idea that someone who is a non-Democrat, who officially didn’t really win Iowa, according to the recanvass numbers, who has predicated his entire candidacy on this electability argument that he can waken a new electorate and turn out non-voters was disproven by Iowa, it was disproven in New Hampshire when Buttigieg and Klobuchar both got twice his number of new voters can come in here without his medical records, and call himself the frontrunner, and continue to dodge all of this stuff while the entire party and all the candidates turn their fire on Mike Bloomberg and give this guy, this avowed socialist who’s going to get slaughtered in the general election, a free pass tonight in this debate while everyone freaks out about Mike’s billions and his ads and his NDAs, would be a fatal mistake for this party. I am sure they're going to make it, but I think the candidates will really fail, and they will elect Bernie Sanders, they will nominate him and give President Trump not only a second term but a huge mandate if they spend all three or two hours or whatever it is tonight focused on how much they don't like Mike Bloomberg.
(....)
4:14 p.m. Eastern
STEVE SCHMIDT: When we talk about vile, online supporters and breaking promises and shattering norms and being untransparent, remind you of anyone? Alright and that's a big problem for Democrats. And I — what I would say about all of this is we all sat here in this room on election night and we were shocked. The world was shocked when Donald Trump was elected. We saw millions of people take to the streets. We have watched this presidency —
NICOLLE WALLACE: And the Women’s March the next day.
SCHDMIDT: — right. We have watched for three years the shattering of norms, the attacks on the institutions, and at the end of it, now about ten months out from the election, what the Democratic Party has produced is a 78-year-old socialist from Vermont who is picking up steam and is going to be an unstoppable force before very much longer on the way to the nomination And so the theory that there is some great base of people yearning for socialism in the United States of America is a fever dream and a fantasy. Here's the deal. There's literally no one in this country who interacts with government. Not at a local level a county level a state level, not at a federal level who comes out of that experience — thank God that was great. Terrific. I want to put these people in charge of more stuff, give them more money, more power, more control and he will be carrying forward into this election some of the most unpopular positions on issues that any candidate ever has. He wants to take away private health insurance from 150 million people. Go tell those union workers in Michigan, and Pennsylvania, those union men and women, that they’re going to lose their private health insurance. It is a death sentence for the party and it will lead to Donald Trump’s re-election in my view.
(....)
4:19 p.m. Eastern
JOHN HEILEMANN: And so when you look down the road, what I think is driving all of the dynamics of this debate tonight is that people, whether you like this or not, are starting to imagine a months-long battle between Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg and that would be the ultimate — I mean, can you imagine a more contentious fight than a Democatic socialist on one side —
NICOLLE WALLACE: No.
HEILEMANN: — and the ultimate plutocrat on the other side, both of them with basically unlimited resources, slugging it out from now until June? How does that look to you in the Democratic Party and can you even put the party back together if that’s what this fight evolves into over the course of the next three or four months?
