During an appearance on Monday’s Hardball, failed MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid argued that Donald Trump attacking John McCain’s military service likely will not hurt him among the “Republican Party base.”
The MSNBC reporter insisted that “having Donald Trump lectured by the media, by the Wall Street Journal or by the Republican National Committee or even by our very own Matt Lauer -- that’s not going to hurt him with the Republican base because you know what they don’t like? They don’t like John McCain.”
In introducing Reid, Chris Matthews argued that Trump’s attack on McCain will hurt him with the very people he was trying to court in the Republican primary:
I think it goes to the very people that he has been courting, accidentally or on purpose, you know, working people, very patriotic people, worried about their country not really being protected anymore, whether it’s immigration or it’s something else. I think he took a direct shot at them in this regard because they do value the MIA, the POW.
Reid condemned Trump’s comments but then baselessly argued that the GOP base will likely have no problem with the billionaire mocking McCain’s status as a war hero:
He [John McCain] was pushed on them...by the establishment -- because he is the establishment to a lot of people in the Republican base. They never wanted him when he was the nominee. He was pushed on them, as was Mitt Romney, by the same people who are lecturing Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal, et cetera. So Donald Trump I think understands the base of that party better than The Wall Street Journal does and better than John McCain does.
Of course Reid never mentioned that nearly every single Republican presidential candidate has denounced Trump and defended McCain’s war record and instead had no problem wildly asserting that the base dislikes McCain so much that they will ignore Trump’s attack on him.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
July 20, 2015
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Joy, let me ask you about this thing. I think it goes out to the very people that he has been courting, accidentally or on purpose, you know, working people, very patriotic people, worried about their country not really being protected anymore, whether it’s immigration or it’s something else. I think he took a direct shot at them in this regard because they do value the MIA, the POW.
This went on in this country, as you and I know -- you’re younger than me -- for 30 or 40 years, there’s been an anger among working people in this country, guys with motorcycles, whatever, you know, they drove around and they talked about this over -- and you go down to the Vietnam Memorial right now, I’ll be you there’s MIA/POW guys down there obsessed with the fact we left some people behind. And now he is making fun of a guy that was a POW. I don’t get why you’d go directly at your own base politically. I don’t get it.
JOY REID: Well, you know what, Chris? And I rarely -- you and I agree on a lot, but on this, I have to say I’m with Kathleen on this one because I don’t see the evidence that this is going to hurt. John McCain -- with those same people you talk about, Chris, if they are part of the Republican Party base...
MATTHEWS: Well, it hurts him with me!
REID: Well, I hear you. But here’s the thing...
MATTHEWS: This is a complete political analysis. I don’t think you should make fun of guys...
REID: I agree.
MATTHEWS: ... -who served the country and suffered for it! I don’t think the end justifies the means!
REID: I totally agree.
MATTHEWS: If he gets a couple votes out of it, the hell of it.
REID: And look, as somebody who grew up in Colorado -- my brother was in the Army National Guard. I grew up in the shadow of Lowry Air Force Base, total respect for the military. I get that it’s going to hurt him with people like you and me, but that’s not who the Republican base is.
MATTHEWS: I don’t know.
REID: And having Donald Trump lectured by the media, by the Wall Street Journal or by the Republican National Committee or even by our very own Matt Lauer -- that’s not going to hurt him with the Republican base because you know what they don’t like? They don’t like John McCain. They don’t like him. They never did. He was pushed on them...
MATTHEWS: Because?
REID: ... by the establishment -- because he is the establishment to a lot of people in the Republican base. They never wanted him when he was the nominee. He was pushed on them, as was Mitt Romney, by the same people who are lecturing Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal, et cetera. So Donald Trump I think understands the base of that party better than the Wall Street Journal does and better than John McCain does.
MATTHEWS: OK...
REID: And so at the moment, he’s firing up the red-hots, as you call them, because they like the way he’s talking. And by the way, this is the same base that laughed -- laughed! -- at John Kerry’s Vietnam service, laughed at his Purple Heart, put on Purple Heart stickers to make fun of and belittle his Vietnam service. So they’re not even consistent on that.
MATTHEWS: Not even -- I don’t think they are.
