On Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," commentator Eddie Glaude slammed President Donald Trump for only thinking of himself as a deadly pandemic ravages the country.
"We're over 80,000 dead and instead of focusing on the fact that the country is in crisis, a profound crisis, and that people are grieving, he's worried about polls," said Glaude. "Look, Donald Trump is a malevolent confidence man, he's a snake-oil salesman, he's a carnival barker. So he would take credit for discovering the Earth was round if he could. So the fact that he's trying to take credit for the success of governors, the fact that he's trying to take credit for the travel ban against Chinese folk traveling to the United States — I mean, all this is a part of his schtick. And what we need to do is understand him for what he is, and what he is is a confidence man, or the shorthand part of that is a con man."
"What do you make of the fact that, into the vacuum these governors were thrust, and people still, even as we're facing what NBC News reported an imminent spike of coronavirus cases, people can handle the bad news. People can handle the difficult days if they feel leveled with," said host Nicolle Wallace. "Is there some basic lesson of leadership being taught by the state's governors?"
"Sure," said Glaude. "When there's mystery, when there's uncertainty, people will fill it with fantasy. When we don't have information, in other words, to make rational decisions and engage in a kind of intelligent action, we'll reach for our deepest fears as a way of justifying how we act. Governors are engaged in front-line work to fill the vacuum with fact. It seems that's amazingly important work when we have such fantasy coming from the White House."
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