Nicolle Wallace nails GOP for wanting to fight terrorism — until it involved Trump voters
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace worked in the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, and in the years that followed. She noted how things changed in less than 20 years as the Republican Party moved from the party of "law and order" or "national security" the party of domestic terrorism.
"Donald Trump's big lie about election fraud reached a pinnacle when he attacked his own vice president," Wallace said after showing the videos. "And his words inspired his own supporters to chant, 'hang Mike Pence' as they breached the Capitol. A violent and hateful display of a Republican Party radicalized by Trump. And you might think that putting the vice president in mortal danger would have been a line too far for the rest of the GOP. Less than a month after the Capitol insurrection, it seems Trump's party is all too keen to welcome him back with open arms."
Today, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to coordinate on whatever their next steps are for the GOP. McCarthy hasn't been shy about promoting the visit, with one source telling Politico "Kevin can't shut up about it."
"The choice to kiss the ring of a man who incited a seditious insurrection is one McCarthy is not alone in making," Wallace said. "Congressman Matt Gaetz is out in Wyoming today challenging Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who voted to impeach Trump. He told reporters this week, 'I have a competing vision for Republicanism. I believe we ought to embrace the spirit and style of President Trump.' Just a quick reminder that spirit and style was what led to the death of five people, including a police officer on January 6th, as well as many more serious injuries suffered by law enforcement."
Wallace characterized waiting for Republicans to denounce Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) calls for assassination, shooting denialism and 9/11 trutherism as being like waiting for a baby to be born.
"Have any of them decided to stick up for the country against seditionists? And we wait and wait, and call, and hope and hope, and we think, 'maybe they will,' and we're watching to see if Mitch McConnell's going to convict or not. Who cares?" she asked. "Unless I'm missing something, they have thrown in their lot with Trump and the mob."
NBC News reporter Heidi Przybyla called it the "Fifth Avenue Principle," recalling Trump's claim that he could shoot a person on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters.
"I read the reporting about plans to put a fence around the Capitol, I thought about reports at the time that [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] feared for her life on the day of the insurrection, all the threats that she and other members get," said Wallace. "It feels like, in the objection to having to go through metal detectors in the refusal, as she said, to condemn violence, in the refusal -- I mean, we had a terrorism bulletin yesterday. I haven't seen any Republican give a speech today with a strategy for defeating violent domestic terrorism, and I was in the Bush White House after 9/11. They couldn't get away from microphones to talk about how they were going to be part of the solution to protecting America from violent terrorism from abroad. So, what do we do now?"
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