Reacting to a parade of Republican lawmakers who have been making themselves available at Donald Trump's hush money trial to boost his spirits and complain about the legal system holding him to account, a former head of the Republican National Committee was baffled by why they are humiliating themselves instead of staying on the sidelines.
From his perch as a co-host of MSNBC's "The Weekend," Michael Steele went on an extensive rant while pointing out to his former GOP colleagues that Trump would throw them under the bus the moment he didn't need them.
Speaking with Sarah Matthews, a former Trump White House aide, Steele stated, "This is the thing for me, and actually, Susan Glasser in the New Yorker nailed it: she noted on Thursday, for Trump, the visual is always the thing and the spectacle bears all the hallmarks of his orchestration. 'These guys will follow me anyway.'"
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"'The message is that there is no detail too base, embarrassing or grotesque to shake their faith,'" he continued reading from Glasser's piece. "That's the part for me, and I think a lot of folks out here. You sit here and go, at what point as a United States congressman do you just take your dignity and shove it? Where you take the respect you have amassed as an elected official and shred it for a man who literally within 30 seconds of saying hello to you could turn on you?"
"What is it inside that you saw that helps you understand this is cray-cray-town," he asked Matthews. "These people are absolutely out of their minds because there is this infection that has taken hold. Help us understand. The fact that this guy is sitting here and saying, 'He will follow me anywhere.' Fifth Avenue. That is just the beginning of what Donald Trump can get away with."
"I think these Republican lawmakers know that Donald Trump has such a hold on the Republican party, so they are concerned with making sure they are on his good side and his good favor because they don't want him to come after them and be a target," the former Trump aide replied. "They will debase themselves and embarrass themselves in order to be on his good side and make him happy."
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MSNBC 05 19 2024 08 17 01 youtu.be