Instead of starting with the "Post-Truth Trump Presidency," we'll first tackle how we got here, hence the back and forth with the rival campaign managers. You can look at the myriad of reasons, factors and influences as to why Hillary Clinton lost and Donald Trump won, but what it came down to was that Donald Trump was a better campaigner than Hillary Clinton, deeply flawed as they both were. Joel Beneson, for the Clinton side, couldn't admit that the candidate herself bears a lot of the responsibility for the loss. On the other hand, despite what KellyAnne Conway actually said, she and the Trump team have not been gracious in the win at all, but their prerogative. President-elect Trump's "Thank You" tour is, let's face it, a victory lap.
Is the press to blame? No, but it bears responsibility for not pressing the candidates on policy specifics more, as Andrea Mitchell mentioned. Unlike any election in all of our lifetimes, the shear chaos of things overwhelmed the press but of its inability to focus on anything with detail. There were a few excepts like David Fahrenthold's reporting in The Washington Post. Between offensive videos and countless, tasteless, bigoted, subtly racist, ignorant, non-factual statements from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton's 'deplorable' comment, stupid email practice, email leaks and FBI intervention all with Benghazi echoing in the background and no one knows which way to go.
[Side Note: Democrats telegraphed their candidate so blatantly and pushed every other contender out the day after President Obama was reelected, and from that moment Republicans were pushing hard on Benghazi and spent a lot of our money to smear Hillary Clinton through the next four years. They didn't know that their investment would ultimately pay out so 'bigly' but that's what it was - one big continually negative campaign against Hillary Clinton who would inevitably get the nomination despite this, and Republicans could it do because they controlled the House.]
After all that bitterness and rancor, it seems like were into the amateur hour matinee of the country's presidential programming because right at this moment that's what the Trump team is giving us. And it's an embarrassment. And Vice President-elect Mike Pence didn't make it any better in his interview.
Donald Trump hasn't even taken office yet and he's already endangering the most complicated but indispensable relationship with China by committing a mistake that clearly shows that the Trump team doesn't do its homework. Donald Trump tweeted that the Taiwanese leader called him, essentially saying that it wasn't his 'fault.' And then when Mike Pence dismisses it as just a courtesy call from the "President of Taiwan," as Andrea Mitchell explained is a serious diplomatic mistake in terms of the China, do you think the Chinese will wonder where's the courtesy to them? The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter explained that at this point there should already be a China policy in place which has considered a position in Taiwanese relations to avoid missteps, in light of these statements. However, during this transition such positions are still foggy at best.
It was refreshing to see Chuck Todd stick up for the press and say that the Trump team uses 'blaming the media' as a crutch because it does. And words do matter. This 'making excuses' tactic on the part of the Trump team is going to get very old very quickly if it continues into the Trump Administration.
In the call with the president of Pakistan, Mr. Trump called him a terrific guy and looked forward to visiting his country, also saying that he'd help end Pakistan's problems [reading: border disputes with India over Kashmir]. You can imagine that the Indian parliament loved hearing that.
President-elect Trump, post-call, disputes what the Pakistani's say what was said - a he-said, he-said thing. After a while, our countries will cut back relations with the U.S. because they'll never know where they stand with the Trump Administration. That's not how it is or necessarily will be, but this is what's trending now.
Rich Lowry described a rude awakening that Congressional Republicans are going to get when they realize that Trump isn't just going to go along with their agenda and sign bills. Republicans and Mr. Trump seem to be on the same page in terms of tax cuts, which will be a massive windfall for the wealthy, needless to understate that it will much less positive for the middle class, but many conservatives, including Rich Lowry didn't love this Carrier deal that saved 1,000+ jobs, but still over half of all of the jobs will in fact move to Mexico. Conservatives didn't like it because it was government intervening in the free market and given that it was in Gov. Mike Pence's Indiana, it reeked of crony-capitalism, that according to Sarah Palin. But dare I say that she has a point. The other sent message is that a company can threaten to move to another country in an attempt to exhort the state and/or federal government for tax concessions. Sure, be glad for the people who kept their jobs, but it's clearly how the business of creating American jobs should be done.
Lastly, there's one more job to comment on, and it's that of House Minority Leader. Nancy Pelosi was reelected to lead the Democratic caucus in the House, but the party should have gone in a different direction. The party needs a different type of leadership energy and for those paying attention who had that feeling of - OK, we got beat but I'm invigorated and motivated by the anger of the loss - just had their motivational bubble popped. Because with Nancy Pelosi back in the leadership position after so many Congressional losses (she's the House messenger of the Democratic platform), there's no avoiding the same stall energy, and hence disappointment.
Panel: Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Heather McGhee, President Demos Action; Rich Lowry, National Review
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