Trump is doing everything you’d do 'if you were trying to throw an election': MSNBC's Heilemann

Following up on a theme that dominated MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday morning that Donald Trump is giving every indication that he is giving up on being re-elected, contributor John Heilemann suggested that the president looks like he is now intentionally trying to throw the election.

Speaking with host Joe Scarborough after the president gave a disastrous interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night, the political analyst said the president appears to have quit on his own campaign and is making conditions worse for those trying to re-elect him.

Noting that the president wants to stop federal funding for COVID-19 testing in Texas at the end of the month over the objections of both of the state's Republican senators as well as eliminate the Affordable Care Act at a time when the pandemic is growing once more, Heilemann said the president's actions are not the ones of a man who wants to remain in office.

"If we stay on the current trend this is the month we'll look back and not say this was the month that Donald Trump lost the presidency," the MSNBC contributor began. "I think that was really the spring of 2020 phenomenon. This was the month when reality for everybody else set in in the sense we've now seen a succession of national polls -- and they have been the market leader in some sense and bringing up the rear have been the battleground state polls -- we know that Donald Trump is worse off at the national level than he is in the battleground states that's how he won in 2016,"

"I'm not saying Donald Trump can't turn it around. I'm not saying it's impossible. -- I'll never say that, never," he continued. "I will say right now we have a comprehensive, thorough, incredible picture of a national and battleground state electorate that has rejected Donald Trump and this is the month that the reality has set in for everyone it seems like except Donald Trump. I think he's not just lost touch with his base and the political reality, he seems to have lost touch with reality -- full stop."

"I go to a comment you made at the top at 6:00, it raises questions," he added. "No one is going to say this is true, he's going to drop out of the race, but it raises the question: does he want to win? Everything he is doing is what you would do if you were trying to throw an election."

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