Trump's mental acuity in freefall as he prepares 'sad spectacle' of old news: ex-insider

Former Trump administration Homeland Security staffer Miles Taylor argued on MS NOW Thursday that the very nature of what President Donald Trump is planning to talk about in his primetime speech is proof of his fading mental faculties.

Trump plans to rehash a number of his election conspiracy theories about the 2020 contest, alleging that the election was manipulated by Chinese foreign actors. A number of major networks are already declining to carry it.

"It's Sore Loser Night again at the White House," Taylor, a longtime activist against the president he once served, told anchor Nicole Wallace. "Look, Republicans in the Senate and the House are leaking like a broken flower pot to the media about how nervous they are tonight." It's clear, he added, that Republicans "don't want the president talking about this."

"You would think, if they had confidence in the goods that Donald Trump was allegedly going to show tonight, they would say, yeah, let them have it, Mr. President," Taylor said. "Instead, they're like, please don't do the sore loser thing again. You are getting our butts kicked out there. It is embarrassing."

The problem, Taylor said, is that based on all current reports, Trump isn't even going to announce anything new, just rehash old conspiracy theories and half-truths — but he seems convinced this is all stuff he is learning for the first time.

"He's going to pretend tonight like he unearthed information about the Chinese trying to meddle in our elections," said Taylor. However, "we briefed him on it in 2018, two years before the 2020 election," and "I can tell you firsthand," he was aware of the threat and delivered a speech about it at the time.

"There's nothing new or groundbreaking since then," Taylor concluded. "He's just remembered that now, or it's a revelation to him. And so he's going to try to make us all feel like this is new. It's not new. It's old ... we're going to see an old man who's re-encountered information that he was briefed on years ago, pretend it's new, try to convince us to get excited, and it's just going to be a sad, sad spectacle."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com