MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow huddled on Friday's edition of "Deadline: White House" over how to respond to President Donald Trump's growing assaults on the press — and Maddow pointed out how uniquely vulnerable a position the president is currently in.
Trump attempted to ban MS NOW, CNN, and Politico from the White House, only for a federal court to slap him down.
"Do youremember when your old boss,George W. Bush said, rarely isthe question asked, is ourchildren learning?" Maddow asked Wallace, to mutual laughter. "Wefirst started talking aboutthis when we first heard that,first of all, the case wasgoing to be all three networksand that the pool was shuttingitself down in solidarity withCNN ... Isaid, rarely is the questionasked, is our institutionslearning? I think we arestarting to learn."
The key thing for media outlets to do, she said, is that "you do nottake these things on one at atime. You do not bear the bruntof this yourself. You look toyour colleagues, and if you'relucky enough to not be the onesingled out this time, don't with the ones who are have beentargeted."
"I think that itis an iterative process," she added. "We arelearning what it means to standup to an authoritariangovernment, and we are beingslow about it. But we'relearning."
Another important point, she continued, is that "he's in a profoundly weakposition right now. And itfeels stupid to capitulateto somebody whose approvalratings are where our toenailfungus is. You know what I mean? ... His political power is at a lowebb. He's humiliating his ownparty. He's humiliating his ownMAGA infrastructure, even interms of the way that he'sspending money."
"I mean, hiscampaign travel plans are to goto Alabama and Oklahoma whenhe's a Republican president," she added. "Imean, why why would anybodycower before a political forcethat feeble?"