‘Political Version of the Tooth Fairy’: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Rakes Trump Over the Coals for ‘Obamagate’ Conspiracy

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace fully skewered President Donald Trump’s attempts to get his base to believe in a ‘Obamagate’ conspiracy against him, laughing off the desperate effort as no more than the “political version of the Tooth Fairy.”

Speaking on with New York Times reporter Peter Baker and former Obama White House adviser Ron Klain, Wallace queried both about the president’s reasoning for trotting out an even deeper Deep State plot this late in an election year. And she further dismissed the strategy of attacking the relatively popular former President Barack Obama, whose net favorability of +22% stands 36 percentage points above Donald Trump’s net favorability of -14%.

“I don’t mean to be sarcastic here,” Wallace said, definitely meaning to be sarcastic. “But does Donald Trump really think that in any corner of the country that he needs to swing his way again that Obama is less popular or viewed as less competent or anyone thinks that this would have gone down worse on Obama’s watch than his?”

“Part of this ‘Obamagate’ and the Obama message is aimed at the core supporters that he wants to keep on his side, that he cannot get to 271 electoral votes unless he starts off with the core voters that he brought to the table,” Baker explained. “He needs to give them something to focus on other than how he has handled this pandemic, because polls show that even a lot of his own supporters have had questions about that, don’t trust the information he’s giving them, have not been happy about some of the delays and other things that have been documented by our colleagues.”

Baker then pointed out that Trump has rarely tried to expand his political appeal beyond those hardcore supporters in the the three-and-a-half years he has been in office.I think that, therefore, you start with that base and then reaching out to the people in the middle has never really been his top priority. He’s trying to reproduce the inside strength that he had three and a half years ago and that’s always been a tough sell for a president who’s never been over 50% in the approval ratings in gallop and some of these main polls and it’s always been a tough challenge and now it’s tougher given what’s happened these last few weeks.

“I know you’re here for your expertise in public health but I’ve got to ask you this,” Wallace then said, addressing Klain and dialing up the snark. “I hear ‘Obamagate’ and I hear, ‘I’m bleeped with my base,’ because there is no ‘Obamagate.’ It’s the political version of the Tooth Fairy. It’s fantasies and fairy tales and it means nothing. It’s like invoking Santa or something totally made up.”

“If he was in any safer political standing,” she added, “he wouldn’t still be sucking up to the hardcore base.”

“The Trump White House looks at this Covid problem and thinks this they have to either deny that it exists or attack someone for it,” Klain responded. “He can blame a long list of people for this. He can try to beat the CDC to lower the death count, but he can’t change the fact that he now has created a giant health mess and a giant economic mess. The second one in particular, Nicolle, that economic mess, that is Trump’s strength politically, is people believe he can deliver on the economy. He’s now facing a huge economic crisis. This really goes to competence and incumbent presidents can’t do a horrible job and get re-elected. That’s what he’s facing.”

“Incumbent presidents running for president, it is always…ALWAYS a referendum on you,” Wallace concluded. “So knock yourself out with the fantasies, Mr. President.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.