Nicolle Wallace Goes Off on Trump’s ‘Teeny Tiny Ego,’ Calls Him Out for Tweeting ‘Like a Punk’ in Support of Lockdown Protests

Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace ripped into President Donald Trump on Friday for undermining the ongoing social distancing rules in place across the country with a passive-aggressive social media incitement of anti-lockdown protests.

Her comments came just hours after Trump sent a series of all-caps, rhetorical call-to-arms tweets urging unnamed persons to “LIBERATE” three swing states. He singled out Michigan, Virginia, and Minnesota for his criticism, despite the fact that dozens of states have emplaced similar shelter-in-place lockdowns.

Perhaps not coincidentally, those battleground states also have Democratic governors and have been the recent site of anti-lockdown protests with strong right-wing ties. For example, the rally at the Michigan state capitol this week, which clearly flouted social distancing safety measures and featured swastikas and Confederate flags, was organized in party by a conservative advocacy group with ties to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

“This moment is like every other in Donald Trump’s presidency, where it’s about his fragile, teeny, tiny ego and the vast nation that he leads and he’s making all his decisions based on press coverage,” Wallace said of Trump, not hiding her scorn. “The difference here, Matt Miller, is that people are dying, more than 30,000 people have died. The virus is still spreading across the country. And Donald Trump today, like a punk, seemed to tweet about, about protesters. I mean, where do you see this moment, Matt Miller?”

“I think the news from the last 24 hours, not just that we don’t have a national testing program but they’re not going to have national testing program has been one of the most disturbing moments for me since this crisis began,” said Miller, an MSNBC political analyst. “I think of it compared to past crises that presidents managed. Look, we know we were slow to get testing off the ground because the president in January and February wasn’t paying attention and when he was paying attention he was actively down playing the crisis and that had real effects within the government.”

“There was no testing program initially because he failed to do his job. Now there’s no testing program because he’s decided it’s not his job,” Miller continued. “And he’s decided it’s not his job, because if it is his job and the American people think it’s his job, then they’re going to blame for the loss of life and the economic destruction that comes with it. He’s looking for anyone to blame and that leaves him in a place where he’s abdicated his number one responsibility, to protect the American public.”

Watch the video above, vix MSNBC.