All posts tagged "nicolle wallace"

'Profound idiot': Nicolle Wallace struggles to process Trump's shock joke to Japanese PM

MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace had a frank reaction on Thursday after President Donald Trump made a jaw-dropping comment that shocked people inside the Oval Office during a White House meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Wallace was visibly stunned after discussing Trump's attempted joke that clearly left the room uncomfortable when a reporter asked why Trump hadn't warned his allies that the U.S.-Israeli military strikes were coming.

"One thing, you don't want to signal too much when we go in," Trump said. "We went in very hard and we didn't tell anyone about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?"

Wallace watched the video playback and commented on Trump, asking her panel to share their thoughts.

"I struggle every minute of every day with platforming him, one, I should do it all day because it shows what a profound idiot he is," Wallace said. "But but two, we were on other sides. This is a question about why didn't you read in your allies? And he says, we didn't know what our adversary was going to do. I mean, David Frum, what do you even, how's your brain doing?"

Frum, a Canadian-American commentator and former speechwriter, described why Trump's words shocked the Japanese leader and dignitaries visiting America.

"So first, there's probably no society on earth where good manners count for more than Japan, a country that has been — and we're talking about 80 years since the end of World War II, that has been a staunch and loyal ally of the United States for 80 years, where the warmth of person to person ties," Frum said. "But the one big cultural difference has always been the emphasis on decorum and decency and respect in Japanese culture, whereas American culture can be a little more boisterous. For the president of the United States to insult them, and you can watch it, sort of figuring out 'No one is amused by what I just said. Maybe if I say it again, it'll get more amusing the second time. And what if I say right, right, right. And give them a little jab in the ribs? Maybe it'll be funny then.'"

Frum described why it was so surprising — and why it left them silent.

"And it's just horrifying. One more thing that needs to be pointed out in this analogy that he's drawing between the United States and Japan, who's doing the sneak attack?" Frum added. "Oh, yeah. He's comparing the United States to the Japanese sneak attack. He wanted to do a Pearl Harbor on Greenland. Now he wants to do a Pearl Harbor on Iran. He is comparing himself to the people whom Americans normally condemn, and then elbowing the Japanese that they don't think the whole thing is terribly amusing."

'Sick': Nicolle Wallace rips Trump's 'verbal violence' toward women in profane takedown

President Donald Trump once again insulted a female journalist to her face in the Oval Office, and MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace is now calling on White House reporters to stand up for their colleagues.

On Monday, Trump called ABC News' Rachel Scott "obnoxious" after she asked him a question about his prior promise to release the video of the controversial Sept. 2 strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea (which he has since recanted). After he insulted Scott, the president deferred to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the matter of the video.

"Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious — a terrible, actually a terrible reporter," Trump said. "And it’s always the same thing with you. I told you, whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me."

During the Monday episode of her show "Deadline: White House," Wallace urged the press to "never normalize the verbal violence" Trump has been known to heap onto women in the media. She then recounted multiple recent instances of Trump insulting female reporters.

"December 6th he called Kaitlin Collins 'stupid and nasty.' On November 27th he said 'are you stupid' To CBS journalist Nancy Cordes. On November 26th, he called the New York Times' Katie Rogers 'ugly.' On November 18th, he called ABC's Mary Bruce 'terrible and insubordinate' — to whom I'm not sure — November 14th, he told a Bloomberg reporter, 'quiet, piggy,': Wallace said.

"This is sick s——. This is sick. And anyone in the room is in the room to do a job for their viewers or their readers," she continued. "But they should go home tonight and think about whether their sisters or their daughters, or their moms, or their sons or their husbands, or their fathers think that there's something else they should do the next time he calls a female journalist obnoxious, terrible, stupid, nasty, stupid, ugly, terrible, insubordinate, or piggy."

"Because maybe if Donald Trump can't live without being on TV, and maybe if they said, 'you know what, we're going to have some solidarity,' like they did with him wanting to change the names of oceans,'" she added. "We're either going to normalize this and then you're going to hear all sorts of prominent people calling women all sorts of names — I'm sure by the time I get off TV I'll have a few of those myself — but we're either going to normalize this and usher in an era of unprecedented misogyny, or that press corps is going to act as one and say, 'no more.'"

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Nicolle Wallace shuts down key Trump claim about the economy

President Donald Trump's administration has continued to maintain that the economy during Trump's second term has been strong, even as prices for basic necessities continue to climb.

During a Tuesday segment, MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace contrasted the words of Trump administration figures like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with comments from ordinary Americans experiencing sticker shock at grocery stores. At the start of the segment, two separate Yonkers, New York residents — Lindsay Gottfried and Harryson Berrios — told MS NOW that "generally everything has gone up."

"I think generally everything has gone up," Gottfried said. "... Milk really seems to fluctuate a lot."

"Just trying to stay up from inflation, working hard and making sure that the family has a good time," Berrios said when asked about his grocery shopping experience. "In a monthly basis, it has gotten to $1,000 a month for food, and trying to recover from everything that goes on."

Wallace then pivoted to a clip from NBC's Kristen Welker on Sunday's episode of "Meet the Press" telling Bessent that "inflation has gone up," adding that it was a full percentage point higher than when Trump first imposed his broad tariffs in April.

"So inflation hasn't gone up," Bessent responded. "And Kristen, the one thing that we're not going to do is do what the Biden administration did and tell the American people they don't know how they feel."

"That sound bite is next to gaslighting in the dictionary right now," Wallace said after playing the clip of Bessent's remarks. "And you know what? You can kill all the data you want. People that go to the grocery store, people that shop for clothes, people that shop for goods, people that buy strollers, people that buy car seats, people that buy walkers, they know everything is more expensive."

Wallace additionally pointed out that the Trump administration has continued to lose the confidence of the American public in its handling of the economy. A Fox News poll conducted earlier this month found that Trump's disapproval rating had hit a record high of 58 percent, with broad majorities of Americans saying basic needs had gotten more expensive under his administration including groceries, utilities, healthcare and housing.

Watch the segment below:

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January 6 investigator warns of another MAGA 'Big Lie' — this time involving Project 2025

Former investigator Timothy Heaphy, who served on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, is cautioning that the second "Big Lie" is already being crafted by Donald Trump and his allies.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said in a conversation with Heaphy on Monday that Jan. 6 and Charlottesville were horrible failures of law enforcement agents, who had ample intelligence ahead of the events.

"Some of the, sort of, conundrum seems to be that the First Amendment protects people's rights to say the most heinous and hideous things, and we have the leader of one of the two political parties hell-bent on exploiting that to lie and to sit at the intersection of lies that inspire action in some instances violence," Wallace said.

She pointed to people on the Georgia Election Board, who are willing to manipulate rules and laws to give Trump the edge in 2024.

"Nicolle, this harkens back to your previous segment about Project 2025," said Heaphy. "There's another lie that's a call to action just like January 6th. The lie that the election was stolen inspired people fueled by the former president's rhetoric to charge the Capitol. The lie with Project 2025 is that the federal government is filled with these deep state bureaucrats who are all pursuing some progressive agenda."

He called it "absolutely false" explaining that the everyday people are nothing more than "career bureaucrats who do their work day to day without regard to politics and that lie is being used to pursue a political agenda."

His upcoming book teaches the lesson that "Democracy is earned, not given," he said. It depends upon participation, people in this country paying attention to these issues, voting, talking to each other, educating themselves, and not being as susceptible to misinformation that often fuels these false narratives. It's up to us, Nicole, in order to protect democracy, and the past is prologue. We have to pay attention to what happened so it doesn't happen again."

See the comments in the video below or at the link here.

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'Too good to be true': Ex-senator says it's karma that Trump may get 'taken out' by Harris

Former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill is filled with glee as Vice President Kamala Harris takes on Donald Trump.

During the MSNBC show "Deadline White House" on Monday, host Nicolle Wallace called it "a phenomenon of a woman being underestimated." Meanwhile, Wallace talked about Harris' "political acumen" and "how much better she is than anyone expected."

McCaskill called the Harris smackdown of Trump the perfect example of "karma."

"I think it's a good reminder that sometimes what we see is so superficial, and this goes for a whole lot of people in elective office, the way people consume media now, the way people get information now, so much of it is, you know, as thick as a Tupperware container," the Missouri Democrat explained.

ALSO READ: Steve Bannon's big gambit now poised to sink Trump's 2024 campaign: analysis

She blamed the political elites with their "tsk-tsk" after her slow start as vice president for setting a low bar for Harris.

"What was forgotten is the battle she had fought and won thus far in her life, the obstacles she had overcome, her skill, her raw intelligence, and incredible work ethic," McCaskill continued. "So she is benefiting from being wildly underestimated by people that are Democrats, not by Republicans, not by MAGA people, but by the Democratic Party."

She also touted Harris' choice of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who surprised voters just as much as she did.

McCaskill also touted the short campaign season. While Trump has been on the campaign trail for nearly two years, Harris has been campaigning for less than a month.

"I love it that she only has a short sprint instead of a marathon, and I love that she was so underestimated, and I love it the most — and you talk about karma — for Donald Trump to be taken out by this woman! Oh, my God, it's just too good to be true!" she laughed.

See the comments below or at the link here.

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Trump seems like he's 'telegraphing that he knows he's going to lose': MSNBC host Wallace

Former Republican communications staffer and current MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace has done her time on GOP campaigns and in George W. Bush's White House, but Donald Trump tends to leave her stumped.

Speaking to a panel of election experts Wednesday, Wallace said ongoing efforts to change election rules and certification laws contrast with Trump's desperation to appear strong. The reality, she said, is he's losing.

"I want to read what you wrote, but for Trump, who is so obsessed with the size of his wins and wearing a superhero shirt when he survives covid, it feels like this massive, sort of, telegraphing that he knows he's going to lose," she said to elections lawyer Marc Elias. "Just talk about the tactic and what it telegraphs."

Elias explained that Trump has never really won an election. In 2016, Elias said Trump only won because of the Electoral College. In 2018 he lost the House. In 2020 he lost the presidency and his anger toward Georgia Republicans led to them losing the Senate.

The latest move Elias has been fighting is the Georgia Election Board's attempt to change rules about election certification after the state Republican chair suggested it. On Tuesday, they pushed through the new rules.

See the full discussion below or at the link here.

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'That's mean to Elvis!' MSNBC panelists laugh at comment that Trump's in 'fat Elvis' phase

MSNBC panelists couldn't help but chuckle Monday afternoon after The Bulwark's Charlie Sykes identified former President Donald Trump as being in the "fat Elvis stage of his career."

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) praised Sykes's comment on Monday morning, which started the network off.

"I've got to give a shout-out to my friend Charlie Sykes," McCaskill said at the top of Nicolle Wallace's show. "I spit coffee over the weekend when I saw how he referred to Trump, that Trump is in the fat Elvis stage of his career."

"I feel like that's mean to Elvis!" shouted Wallace.

"I mean, I love that. I love that," McCaskill continued. "And, by the way, fat Elvis is worried, and so is the weirdo he picked as his running mate."

McCaskill pointed out that the Democratic field "is pretty damn good," and Vice President Kamala Harris doesn't have any bad choices.

Sykes explained that the rally over the weekend was revealing.

"We can talk about, you know, what his strategy was and what he intended to do, but I also think, you know, the other thing was the complete lack of impulse control," explained Sykes Monday morning. "You know, as Mike Barnicle says, this is a deeply damaged man who is really sort of, you know, once again in the fat Elvis stage of his career. I thought it was very revealing that ... he's going back to when he came down the golden elevator back in 2015."

Sykes was referencing the initial Trump announcement when he returned to his conspiracy that Barack Obama was not a real citizen.

"This man is relitigating his original playbook because that's what he's got. I think that's what my takeaway from all of this was. He keeps going back to things that he thinks work," said Sykes about Trump turning birtherism into anti-Harris racism.

On Monday afternoon, Sykes explained that one of the more interesting things unfolding in the GOP is that it has been "purging its bench." He noted there have been many good candidates over the years but that they've been shoved out after clashing with Trump.

See the comments in the video below or at the link here.

Commentators giggle at Trump as "Fat Elvis"youtu.be

‘No evidence': MSNBC host pans Vance rant that Dems ‘brainwash children'

New audio has surfaced of J.D. Vance accusing childless Democrats of trying to “brainwash children,” and MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace is having none of it.

Vance “has spent the last few years saying some of the weirdest most offensive and off-putting things,” Wallace said during her Friday afternoon broadcast, including derogatory comments attacking Democratic leadership as “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”

In a newly resurfaced comment from a 2021 Breitbart radio interview, Vance went on a rant accusing Democratic leaders without biological offspring of trying to brainwash children.

“So many of their next generation leaders – you know, the Corey Bookers, the Kamala Harrises – they don't have kids, and so there's this weird way where they want to take our kids and brainwash them so that their ideas continue to exist,” Vance said. “Parents get to raise their children, families get to raise their children, not the state, not the leaders of the left. If you want to brainwash children: have your own kids to brainwash. Leave your hands off mine.”

As the audio cut off, Wallace barely missed a beat.

“There no evidence any of that is true,” Wallace quipped.

She then laid into the defense Vance made in an interview with Megyn Kelly – that his comments were sarcastic and taken out of context – as his “seeming commitment to keep digging in his repeated attacks on the women of this country.”

“You know, not working,” Wallace said. “The idea that people who haven't had children don't have rewarding lives is still offensive to everyone, even those of us who don't have kids.”

The backlash to Vance has been a boon to Harris’ campaign, as Democratic women raised more than $1 million dollars in a record-breaking Zoom fundraiser that amassed more than 136,000 participants.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

'Making him squirm': Expert pours cold water on 'desperate' Mike Johnson's new challenge

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is making a "desperate" move with his recent comment that Vice President Kamala Harris can't get on the ballot in all 50 states, one election expert said.

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Friday, election lawyer Marc Elias of Democracy Docket addressed Jake Tapper's CNN interview with Johnson on Monday, in which Johnson invented a conspiracy about the ballot.

"Johnson said both before and after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday that there are legal 'impediments' in some states to a party switching presidential candidates as the Democrats did," CNN reported.

Johnson even touted his constitutional lawyer expertise when spinning the ABC News conspiracy.

"It would be wrong and I think unlawful in accordance to some of these state rules for a handful of people to go in the backroom and switch it out because they’re – they don’t like the candidate any longer," Johnson said.

CNN investigated by calling election officials in 48 of 50 states who told them it wasn't true.

Wallace couldn't understand why Johnson would make such a claim.

Elias, the expert on election law, gave a more frank reply.

"I think they're desperate," Elias said. "They planned an entire campaign to run against Joe Biden."

He described "victory laps" by top Trump campaign staff assuming they were going to win after the first debate. They even bragged to The Atlantic that they'd "win in a landslide."

"All of a sudden, instead of Joe Biden, they have Kamala Harris," he said.

"We are lucky to have her now and the RNC is scared of her. Donald Trump is terrified of her," he said, noting the ex-president is already "backing out of debates."

"And it is a joy to watch Mike Johnson squirm as he realizes his days in the speaker's chair are numbered," he said.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace puzzled over J.D. Vance's nodding at Trump’s word salad

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace can't understand what is happening with J.D. Vance and Donald Trump.

Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's short-lived communications director, and "All In Together" co-founder Lauren Leader discussed the bizarre relationship between the GOP team.

Wallace showed a clip of Trump and Vance in an interview with Fox where Trump goes off on a tangent about wind energy, of which his disdain is well documented. At one point, he alleged that windmills killed whales, but in a recent interview, he explained: "They want wind. The wind is blowing today. The whole thing is the most expensive hoax in the world. The wind. It kills our birds."

During the comments, Vance nodded along with enthusiasm.

"I'll ask you to explain the head nodding as our resident J.D. Vance expert. Why is he nodding? Anyone alive can understand that this was an idiotic, garbled sentence. Why is J.D. Vance nodding?" Wallace asked.

Scaramucci said he didn't want to be Vance's "life coach."

Instead, he said, "I'm watching this implode gloriously. I've got to tell you something, it's absolutely horrific. Go back to the tape, Nicolle. Take five minutes of your day and look at [Vance's] acceptance speech and look at Trump. It looked like he was eating a garbage sandwich in his mouth. I'm using a — we're on the air."

Scaramucci explained he didn't want to use profanity.

"Trump cannot stand this guy! I'm telling you right now, he's lighting up his staff. He's saying, 'I almost got killed by an assassin's bullet. You pushed this guy on me. He's dull and boring. Trump is a casting director. Vance is not helping here."

The "dirty secret" too, he continued, is "Vance thinks he's smarter than Trump. Trump hates that. Vance thinks this is his 2028 presidential tour. Donald Trump fires people who get more attention than him. Trust me, I know that. He fires people that get more attention."

See the full discussion below or at the link here.

Nicolle Wallace puzzled why J.D. Vance keeps nodding at Trump’s word-saladyoutu.be