In an attempt to explain why Donald Trump is not only letting the Jeffrey Epstein files controversy consume the news cycle but is also making things worse with his statements, one former lawmaker suggested he can't face reality.
On Wednesday, in the face of withering attacks from his MAGA base that he is betraying them by letting his Department of Justice sit on the Epstein files and claiming there is nothing of interest, Trump floated a file "hoax" conspiracy theory. Later in the day, the administration fired the prosecutor in the federal case against Epstein.
That has only inflamed critics which led MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire to ask ex-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) about the series of missteps.
"Let's talk about the politics of this," he prompted his guest.
"It is so rare to have a MAGA backlash," she admitted. "I was talking to a person very close to President Trump last night who made the note that one of the things that really angered Trump is he feels like, whether it was the lawmakers who rode his coattails to office or these podcaster types who have made a lot of money off of Trump's name, we know how angry Trump gets when he feels like people are profiting off of him."
"Those are the same people, in his estimation, who are betraying him now, who are not listening to his edict: 'Hey, stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein. Let's talk about the big beautiful bill or whatever it might be.' There's rare defiance here."
"What do you make of this sort of new moment?" Lemire pressed.
"Well, the bottom line is these folks who are making money off Trump are doing so because 83 percent of the Republican base agree that this is a problem," she replied. "Trump is in denial that he has got a revolt. And I mean, this is just maybe some basic advice: when you're in that kind of situation politically, probably not a good idea to call all your supporters stupid because they know he has been part of feeding this monster, and now the monster is strong and it believes what he has said and what his supporters have said for years."
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