MSNBC's Joy Reid schools conservative claiming the GOP's agenda has nothing to do with Trump

On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's "AM Joy," during a discussion about the defection of Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) host Joy Reid took Republican strategist Noelle Nikpour to task for claiming that Amash could have denounced Trump without leaving the GOP.

"It's going to be hard to raise money, that's number one," said Nikpour. "If you have turned your back on the GOP — he said he was quitting the GOP. He didn't say he was quitting Donald Trump. He could have said, I'm quitting team Trump. He's quitting the GOP."

"Hold on a second," said Reid. "Donald Trump is the GOP. Donald Trump is the head of the Republican Party. He's running — all of the policies that Donald Trump is putting in place, your party 100 percent is standing behind him on, whether it's the children in cages which violates all kinds of laws and maybe the Geneva convention. They're behind him on tariffs, which are destroying people's farms and ranches, destroying their lives. They're behind him on everything he does, even if he's saying 'I'm going to ignore the Supreme Court.' If no one has quit over that, Charlottesville, nothing else, does the guy get credit for saying he has some principle? At some point he says enough."

"He totally gets credit for being his own man and standing up for things that he doesn't believe in or agree with," said Nikpour. "But to quit the party. The party is not the — the Republican Party platform is not Donald Trump. It's a platform—"

"But it is," said Reid. "Yes, it is. It is Donald Trump. It is 100 percent Donald Trump. It's whatever he wants, he does it. Whatever Donald Trump wants, that's the platform."

"But he ran under the GOP label. The GOP didn't run on his label or his brand," protested Nikpour. "So in effect—"

"So then the kids in cages are the Republican platform?" Reid pressed her.

"Well, I..." spluttered Nikpour. "I just feel like, you know, back to the original point, I just feel like for him to try to do a re-election campaign raising money, trying to depend on major GOP donors to help get his message out. I just don't see him getting re-elected when he quits the Republican Party."

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