Cabinet members showered President Donald Trump with praise at their hours-long televised meeting, but a political consultant warned those displays of devotion could wind up backfiring.
The 79-year-old president on Tuesday hosted a record-breaking three-hour, 16-minute cabinet meeting where Senate-confirmed officials fell over themselves laughing at his wisecracks and insults, and they lavished him with adulation that astonished "CNN News Central" host Erica Hill and other onlookers.
"These cabinet meetings that the president holds that are really, I suppose, a moment for, once again, his cabinet to publicly praise him," Hill said. "It's a very 'dear leader' feeling moment. Yesterday, nearly four hours – does that concern you at all?"
Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton doesn't think those displays would break through with most Americans, who he said won't likely see the meetings on television.
"I don't pay attention to to those meetings, and I don't think that most average Americans pay attention," he said. "Most people are working during the times that we're in these things."
"So do they not matter?" Hill interrupted.
"I don't think they do," Singleton replied. "I'm just being honest. If I were to conduct a focus group and do some qualitative analysis, and I were to ask the American people, 'How much do you care about the president showcasing 20 minutes of these meetings that we actually air on TV?' I think most people probably would say, 'I don't care, I don't think about it, I'm too busy doing other things.' So I don't think that matters a whole lot at all."
Democratic strategist Karen Finney disagreed, saying the public would be appalled once they actually saw what takes place in those meetings.
"I think what actually would matter to people is the fact that he needs so much validation," Finney said. "You know, he is doing this retribution tour, revenge on people like John Bolton. He is firing people who won't give him information if they give him the truth, but he doesn't like the truth, you're going to get fired. He seems to think that economic policy is really all about controlling the Fed, so how can I get rid of the people I don't like and just get the people I do like, and then has to sit in a meeting where everybody is clearly instructed that they have to boost his ego up."
"I don't agree with Shermichael," she added. "I don't think most people care about much of what's happening in that meeting, but I think they care that our president is so weak that he needs to be bolstered like that."