Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Out of Touch? Critics Slam Trump’s ‘Marie Antoinette Moment’ at the Reflecting Pool

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Out of Touch? Critics Slam Trump’s ‘Marie Antoinette Moment’ at the Reflecting Pool · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: With control of Congress on the line, let's bring in
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: MSNL political analyst Molly Jean Fast, host of the Fast
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Politics podcast and contributor to the New York Times opinion page.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Harvard University's Charles Blow is the host of the new
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: YouTube show Forward by Charles M. Blow, MSNL political analyst
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and host of the archival podcast Juanita Tolliver. Corbyn Trent
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: was communications director for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and publisher of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: America's Undoing. And Paula Reid is MSNOW's chief White House reporter.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: It is so good to see you. All right. This
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: was quite a choice.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: For an electorate that has been saying. The economy, the economy,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the economy. To position himself outside of a vanity project
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that is going to cost taxpayers at least $ 16 million,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: which is 10 times the original estimate. It puts a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: focus on the failures rather than anything he could even
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: attempt to claim.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: As a success. Right.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: It's empty, right? I mean, that's what I would say.
• 0:57
  Speaker 5: It's empty.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: So are they going to be in the thing or
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: are they going to be around the circle? It's a
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: fascinating idea. But I think, you know, I said this before,
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: I have to say it again, but it is kind
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  Speaker 4: of a Marie Antoinette moment. Like he keeps showing, demonstrating
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: he wants to live in excess and in vanity. And,
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  Speaker 4: you know, right before the French Revolution, they started calling
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: Marie Antoinette Marie. Madam Deficit. I think that we are
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  Speaker 4: now calling him Mr. Deficit. It is him that is
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: putting America in the hole. Here's the reason that you
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: cannot pay your bills. Here's the reason that the gas
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: cost twice what it cost last month or six months
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: ago to fill up your tank. And people keep seeing that.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: And what this demonstration to this afternoon is going to
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: demonstrate is that he's still in that. He cannot let
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: it go. He cannot kind of extract himself from his
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: own vanity.
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: I'll take your Marie Antoinette moment and raise you a
• 1:54
  Speaker 6: treat yourself moment. I say treat yourself because he's been
• 1:57
  Speaker 6: on the.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Road doing 28 rallies. He's tired. He said so this weekend.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I'm tired. I could be at home watching TV, but
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I'm here with y'all. Right. Like with this strained voice,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: he's hoarse. He's tired. He's over it.
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: And so I think this is him getting back to
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: his happy place. We know his happy place is designing
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: things in his own image and making or painting things gold.
• 2:18
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: Like this is this is what I think he is,
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: his version of self-care at a moment when they're bracing.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: For losses, of course, which he will take no responsibility for.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: It's not a departure either. Like he keeps saying, I
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: don't care about people's economic state. I'm not into this.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: You know, he's told us over and over, you know,
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: literally directly. I don't care about running this country, really.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: I just want to make some money. I want things
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: to have my name on them. You know, this his
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: whole presidency has been a vanity. And people are listening.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Our colleague Alex Tabet spoke to a number of voters,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: specifically young men on the trail.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And this is what they.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Had to say.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: I'm angry and betrayed. I feel betrayed.
• 2:57
  Speaker 7: Everything that he said has been an empty promise and
• 3:00
  Speaker 7: everything has just gotten more expensive.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: He promised not to get into.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Any foreign wars on the campaign trail.
• 3:07
  Speaker 7: That's one of the things that has angered me is
• 3:10
  Speaker 7: like almost immediately went back on his work. It's making
• 3:15
  Speaker 7: it harder to pay off my college debt and stuff
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: like that. I was doing pretty well for a while.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: My view of him went down. I'm not a big
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: fan anymore.
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: I love America, but the America that I was promised
• 3:27
  Speaker 6: as a kid, I feel like is not the America
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: that I'm seeing.
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  Speaker 7: And I know I'm speaking on the behalf of a
• 3:31
  Speaker 7: lot of people in my circle that would have to
• 3:33
  Speaker 7: agree with me.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: This was a core demographic that coming out of the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: last presidential election, he made inroads with. And he has
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: already not only just lost them, but they feel betrayed
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: by him and by his party.
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  Speaker 2: Because he was in.
• 3:47
  Speaker 8: The Manosphere on the Manosphere podcast saying, I'm going to
• 3:52
  Speaker 8: make things cheaper for you. I mean, that was one
• 3:54
  Speaker 8: of the core promises and end wars in the Middle East.
• 3:58
  Speaker 8: So what did he immediately do? He enacted tariffs, which
• 4:00
  Speaker 8: made things more expensive. And he went to war in
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  Speaker 8: the Middle East. I mean, they're not people are not stupid.
• 4:06
  Speaker 8: They have eyes and ears. And so I think what
• 4:09
  Speaker 8: you're seeing is why he's you know, why nine out
• 4:12
  Speaker 8: of seven out of 10 young men have turned against
• 4:15
  Speaker 8: Trump is because he did the opposite of what he
• 4:18
  Speaker 8: said he was going to do within two years.
• 4:20
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: There's frustration among voters.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I'm curious. Oh, I'm curious, Paula, if there is frustration
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: inside the White House, what are you hearing from your sources?
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: So I've been speaking to sources inside the administration, outside advisers,
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: folks who were down in Mar-a-Lago this past weekend and
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: across the board. Look, there is a sense that absolutely
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: we're going to face losses. Some advisers even tell me, well,
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: maybe we deserve this based on the policies we have
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: and have.
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  Speaker 2: Not put forth.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: But what's interesting, despite everything at stake for the president,
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: for his allies, potentially for his family when it comes
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: to Democratic oversight. There doesn't seem to be a big
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: focus on turning out that last handful of voters in
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: Michigan or in Texas. Instead, the people I talk to,
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: they're focused on themselves and their next move. Now, while
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: most administrations see a lot of people exit at the midterm,
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: here we do expect to see a lot of high-profile departures,
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: and that presents opportunities for folks who want to move up.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: So what I'm told to look for over the next
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: few days are people who want to really show not
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: only the president, but also, I am told, Stephen Miller himself.
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: that they are loyal not only to this administration, but
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: to their priorities, because I'm told people recognize that Miller
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: will have a big role in determining how the next
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: two years play out and especially who gets those promotions.
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: So that's what I'm watching for really closely over the
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: next few days. I was a little surprising in my reporting.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: That is not what I expected people to say.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: You have that shuffle happening inside the White House at
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the same time that you have the president floating the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: idea of issuing preemptive pardons for members of his staff
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and even Elon Musk.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Right after Halloween, that is what I call a scary shuffle.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: You know, putting Stephen Miller more in charge of things
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: does not set me at ease. This has been, I think,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: an architect of some of the my least favorite policies
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: out of this White House administration. So I hate to
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: hear that people are having to look up to Miller
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: for for their promotion.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: But it's not just you.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, the mass deportation machine has not factored well,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: even with their own voters, because there may have been
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: people who are concerned about chaos at the border. They
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: didn't want to watch an administration bring that chaos to
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: American streets.
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: And I think that's part of the reason why we're
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: seeing historic turnout numbers in a state like Texas.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Seven point four million voters.
• 6:31
  Speaker 6: Cast their ballots early, and that's compared to 2.9 million
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: in 2022. So add immigration into the issues mobilizing them.
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: Add that to the fact that they see Elon Musk
• 6:42
  Speaker 6: attempting to buy an election in their state. Add that
• 6:44
  Speaker 6: to their dislike of Ken Paxton, right? Add that to
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: the attacks.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: On abortion rights.
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  Speaker 6: This is a potpourri of options for people to vote
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: against Republicans.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: A cornucopia.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Can we listen to some sound of the president in
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Kansas and then we'll discuss on.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: The other side.
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  Speaker 2: This is his final rally. So just keep that in mind.
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: We've been doing this for 11 years and there's never
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: been anything like it.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: And there probably never will be again.
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  Speaker 7: There'll never be the crowds.
• 7:13
  Speaker 8: There'll never be the feeling that I don't think it
• 7:15
  Speaker 8: can ever happen again.
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: This is a unique this is a unique. thing that's
• 7:19
  Speaker 7: second place?
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  Speaker 2: It's like an inside thought.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: An inside thought. I like that.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: All of it is inside thought. I have a boyfriend
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: and I don't talk about men's stuff as much as
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: this man does. What is happening? None of this is
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: helping the candidates that he is on the trail for.
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: And a lot of them are like the young men
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: earlier in the segment. Like, They're turning away. And let
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: me just say this. I have an extreme lack of
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: empathy for the people who said I will believe the
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: guy who lies. Right. Because he's lying to me and
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: telling me that he will hurt that person and the
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: black person and the brown person and the woman. But
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: he won't hurt me. And now I got hurt. I
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: don't have sympathy for that.
• 8:02
  Speaker 7: Right.
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  Speaker 4: None at all. Come back or don't. Vote how you
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: want to vote, but don't expect me to look at
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: you and say, oh, poor you. Come into the fold. Actually,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: you need to work on yourself. Change your mind about
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: a couple of things. Think about how you were relishing
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: the idea that he was going to hurt other people.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: You just didn't think they were going to hurt you.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: And if not relishing it, okay with it. How are
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: you fine with it?
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Either way, it's a problem. It's a problem.
• 8:29
  Speaker 8: I would just say like this is a president where
• 8:31
  Speaker 8: his supporters are very much like he's so sharp.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: He's so with it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 8: We watch the right. We watch these speeches and we're like,
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: who does this help? This doesn't help him. It doesn't
• 8:43
  Speaker 8: help Republicans in the midterms. I mean, you have to
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: wonder like what he's doing now.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, well, Republicans are wondering that. Politico is reporting this.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: They are privately already blaming the president for their midterm problems.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: One said, quote, there was a point earlier this year
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: when we really felt like we could defy history. And
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: then Trump bombed Iran. Another said, at least when Barack
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Obama was president, he only screwed his enemies, never his friends.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I do think it is worth underlining that the war
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: was real. a pivotal point for voters who were still
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: sitting on the fence about this presidency, because it sort
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: of summed up a series of challenges, right? It put
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the economy in focus. It put the promises that he
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: had made around no foreign interventions into focus. And it
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: underlined the fact that this is an administration that has
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: been defined by chaos.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: It was such a direct, you know, rebuke of what
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: his campaign was about, you know, that sort of promise
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: that he had made to the American people about their incomes,
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: about their ability to afford things. And then on top
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: of that, Literally not going into another foreign war in
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: the Middle East. And he goes back on all of that.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: And then, you know, the two weeks thing is it
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: reminded me of the infrastructure week. Infrastructure week was always
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: coming in his first term, but it never came. This
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: war is always going to end two weeks from now,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: two weeks from now, two weeks from now. And the
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: American people, I think, I mean, like me, I've just
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: gotten sick of hearing all of the promises. because there
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: are none of them kept.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Well, also to your point about sort of the limits
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: of empathy, it is fascinating to me to hear Republican
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: operatives act as.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Though they have no agency.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Or that Republican senators, a co-equal branch of government, have
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: no agency. I mean, this has been going on since
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: since he took office. They had multiple opportunities to reject
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the policies, reject the rhetoric. And now on the eve
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: of election night, they want to point the finger at
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: him and say that he was the problem as though
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: they were not complicit.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: But Donald Trump is a black hole of power.
• 10:31
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: Every all power around him. He sucks it in. And
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: they were willing to let him have it. Congress basically
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: abdicated its responsibility and all of its power in the
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: face of this president. The Republicans had a majority, but
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: they didn't exercise any kind of free agency with that majority.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: They only did what the president allowed them to do.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: And a lot of the time they just went home.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: They just didn't do business because he didn't want the
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: business that they were going to do. And so they
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: let this go. And what we're going to have to
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: do is, if Democrats take over, is to try to
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: reel some of that back in. He may say, I'm
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: going to veto everything. Let him. But what you have
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: to do is to draw a line in his hand
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: and say, we're going to do the business of Congress.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: You can do the business of the executive branch, and
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: that may be vetoing. But we are going to do
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: the business of the people and tell the people that
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: you are standing in the way. And that is how
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: the Democrats have to operate.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I love that the table has already moved to 2027, Paula.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Hey, it's Rachel.
• 11:30
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• 11:31
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• 11:33
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• 11:56
  Speaker 7: Thanks.