‘Like watching ‘Grumpy Old Men’’: Columnist on Trump’s X conversation with Musk

This space is not available. Five words and a failure tonight for a much anticipated conversation between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. That accident that everyone was supposed to watch while it broke the internet, and not in the Beyonce kind of way. If you are trying to click over to watch that Trump Musk talk, which I believe is still ongoing for most of the time, you couldn't do it for about 40 minutes. And when the interview finally did get underway, Trump went into his normal stump speech, including more Kamala Harris insults. This was Tara just a maybe a an allegory of what's been going on with the Trump campaign for some time. Yeah, 40 minutes on hold. They start off, it's meandering, and he's doing exactly what a lot of people are trying to tell him not to do, which is attacking Harris, not on substance, but just because she exists. Yeah. I mean, this shouldn't be news. This is what Trump does. He does the complete opposite of what everyone else tells me to do. He's petulant and intransigent, and he thinks that he's his own best campaign manager, consultant, political communications guru. And there's a reason why he's now losing. There's a reason why Kamala Harris, the swing in the polls that Kamala Harris has overtaken him in swing states. People are tired of this act. It's a it's a Vegas lounge act. Now he needs new material and the insult or something that particularly for moderates and moderate women who are an important constituency. If Trump thinks he's going to win this time around, they don't want to hear this. And so the people who have been running his campaign are very smart, veteran political operatives and now they're facing the time, the honeymoon period of keeping a disciplined Trump together is over. This is Donald Trump unleashed. He's going to do what he wants to do. And it's not working for him. And the polls show why it isn't. I want to play a little bit of what what he's been saying on this extreme. He talks about, Harris and really seems to be still grappling with the fact that she's now the candidate and it's not Joe Biden anymore. They're doing it right now while there's they're great phony candidate. Don't forget, I beat I beat Biden, he failed in the debate miserably. We cannot have a Democrat. We cannot have her. She's incompetent. She's as bad as by. It's like watching grumpy old man or something. There's just. I don't mind attacking a person for their policies or their positions, but he's just sort of griping just because she exists. To your point, and I think we know why he's griping because she exist. She's a black woman. And everything that I've seen in the course of his career, and I know that he has black women in his circle, and I know he's appointed Omarosa and all of that. I know all of that background, but I also know when he's confronted and being held accountable by black women time and time again, he shown to be someone who is uncomfortable in that situation. I think he's complaining more because it's Kamala Harris, a black woman, than any other factor. There's nothing that he's saying about her. However, that wasn't actually said by Biden. Campaign personnel and leaks to the press for months and months before the hot swap unfolded. For literally about three plus years, you had folks around President Biden who are leaking against undermining. Characterizing Kamala Harris as a disaster is underprepared. How do you know this? Because of extensive reporting and drawing on white House sources, former President Trump doesn't know this. If you've known for three years this woman was coming, and now she's here and you're going to see what's going on. Sorry, I wasn't I wasn't sufficiently clear. What I'm saying is that what he is saying now when he is diminishing her capacity and what have you, these were all things that were standard talking points coming from Democrats who were anxious about her weaknesses. We know only over the last month or so has the narrative entirely changed about this, because the president has a lot to protect. So, President Biden, are you suggesting that this is originating because Donald Trump is following the Intel of Democrats, and this based solely upon the intellect, Democrats, and not some long standing representation of how you feel about American people since tonight. What he's suggesting is that this is not just off of what Democrats have said, but Democrats have also said some of the same things Trump has said. And so him saying these things is not something new that no one's ever said before, that she's incompetent and you can point to the policies. You can look at so many policies throughout this administration that she has owned that will hurt her and swing the idea. And just to be clear, I mean, I understand that that maybe there were some Democrats privately who were nervous about Harris, but I don't know that you have Democrats calling her phony incompetent. That's great. That's what I was about to say. Well, I must have missed where Democrats called her a bum. I must admit, West, where they questioned her ethnicity. I must have missed when Democrats called her low IQ and stupid, and all of the litany of awful insults that Donald Trump has levied against Kamala Harris. And she's been the race. But did you think that a couple percentage points in 2020 to make it to the first time, this isn't this isn't the first time she wasn't wildly popular? It doesn't matter. She's a vice president of the United States. And, she's beating Donald Trump right now. So but what also, we are also is that Donald Trump's history of insulting women is very long, as a matter of fact, and her history of failing as long as well. And, and documented that many times when he was at the bully pulpit, he insulted women heatedly, including you, Abby, who he also called stupid, which you're not. You went to Harvard and you are far from that. And this is what Donald Trump does. He doesn't like to be held accountable. So because he is now in a position where he now is being held accountable for what he said, we know already that he has a history of being a sexist. And now he cannot. This is base on the fact these are not the arguments that are actually a factor for Kamala Harris. Now look at the recently up front temple read Hoffman script. Blueprint has described what is effective for Kamala Harris. What is effective for her is taking positions that are the positions that would be endorsed by Joe Manchin and by Bernie Sanders being perfectly down the line. I will protect Social Security, Medicare, it is not actually attacking Trump. What you guys are doing right now is, you know, pointing out case management right now, but it actually isn't something that moves the needle when you see exactly this kind of trust that doesn't actually have much of a material effect, anti-Trump arguments individually. So it's entirely interesting that Ryan is making about base management on the left. But but really, it seems also that Trump is doing some base management on the right. And there are people in conservative circles who think that the constant attacking of Harris is not working. And this is what they're trying to tell him at this point. Now, publicly. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as attorney general on crime? When Trump attacks Harris personally, rather than on policy, Harris's support among swing voters rises, particularly among women. Not a good idea if you want to attract suburban women who can make or break your campaign. I mean, Madison, that's pretty straightforward. I mean, these are people who otherwise would be giving Trump advice. They think that he is on the wrong track here. Well, and I talked about this on your show on Friday about the fact that many Republicans across the country are concerned about the missed opportunities that we continue to see, not just from President Trump, but from other Republicans that are out there on the stump for the president and for some of the down ballot races as well, that they just simply aren't talking about these policies that are going to swing voters in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia. We need to be hearing more about those policies. Like I mentioned, some of the policies that people don't feel the vice president is strong on. These are the things that I don't think we hear enough about. That's what can swing these voters. Well, I can tell you that the evidence that we've seen already in the polling in swing counties, like outside of Philadelphia, bucks County, Delaware County, Chester counties, you see that there are moderate women there who are not comfortable Republican, right of center women who are not comfortable with Donald Trump, not comfortable with the attacks against women, not comfortable with the extremist agenda. And project 2025 on issues on women's reproductive health and IVF and no fault divorce and voting rights. All of these things, these attacks on women that are really extreme, they're not comfortable with that. And we're seeing that. And we just saw it today in the in the New York Times Siena poll that these places are shifting women in these places, in these suburban counties that Donald Trump needs to win. They are not comfortable with that.