MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace was the first to take on the personal aspect of Donald Trump's interview on Fox with Bret Baier Monday. While the aftermath has been filled with legal analysis on why his statements made things worse, Wallace looked at how Trump appeared to voters.
"The other thing that is remarkable about this moment is that Trump doesn't seem to know what he wants," she said. "On the one hand: 'Can't catch me! I can stand trial. I didn't do it. They're mine. It was newspaper clippings.' On the other, he's so addled he's talking about stuffing his pants in with his desk stuff. That's not a good look, either. Why were his pants in with his papers? He sounds like a crazy hoarder."
Former Republican Rep. David Jolly (FL) attributed it to the long list of Trump's different vanities.
"One is that he can do no wrong, right? He says, 'I didn't do anything wrong.' But he says, 'I can do no wrong.' Like the Richard Nixon line, 'When the president does it, it's not illegal,'" Jolly recalled from the 1977 interview with David Frost. "Donald Trump lives his life that way. He thinks if he does something, it can't possibly be wrong. There's this arrogance, there's this vanity, so when he makes off-the-cuff statements, he doesn't see the ultimate jeopardy he's putting himself in. That vanity juxtaposes with his actual strategy, and now Donald Trump's trial strategy is to win the presidency."
He explained it as "chapters," with the first being the indictment, which hasn't moved any needles other than to strengthen Trump's hold on the GOP.
"What about when he is on trial?" Jolly asked. "I don't know that moves him. What about conviction, and post-conviction? I'm of the theory there is not a trial until after the Republican primary is likely decided, which would be arguably March 19th coming out of Florida. We'll have a good idea if it's Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, or somebody else."
Wallace went on to hit Republicans, claiming they are "speaking out of both sides of their mouth." She noted that it seems they've rushed past whether Trump is innocent or guilty, and decided to talk about the pardon process. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) confessed casually to reporters Tuesday that Trump was probably going to jail.
"I mean, his guilt is so obvious to everyone across the ideological spectrum," she said. "We talk about being a divided nation, on the question of Trump's criminality, the two most public beaters of the drum of Trump's flagrant criminality, his guilt, not even just probable cause to charge him, but his guilt, are Bill Barr and Chris Christie!"
A former Justice Department official lamented she felt sorry for the lawyers involved, but Wallace had no love for them either.
"Oh, I don't. It's so pathological. They think they're going to be different from the lawyers who repped him in Mueller and Trump U and impeachment or different from the lawyers who repped him impeachment two," said Wallace. "Thinking you're going to be different is, like, a pathology most people can see entering early adulthood, not those who would represent Donald Trump."
See the segment in the video below or at the link here.
Nicolle Wallace: Trump 'sounds like a crazy hoarder' in Fox interviewwww.youtube.com
