MSNBC Anchor Says Trump Right He Can Wrap Up Nomination Early, Starting ‘Very, Very Ugly’ General Election No One Wants
MSNBC anchor Jonathan Lemire joined Chris Jansing on Tuesday to discuss the latest on the 2024 presidential race and weighed in on the possibility of Trump wrapping up the GOP nomination in March.
Lemire first weighed in on the Biden campaign blasting Trump for saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country.
“No hesitation, no hesitation at all to call it out for what they saw, which was this hateful rhetoric that Trump used, language that evoked Hitler,” Lemire said, adding:
So the White House and Biden world said so they said as much. And it stems back from a meeting that the president had with a group of historians at the White House last year who warned that the danger posed by Trump and his MAGA associates to the nation’s very democracy. And they urged Biden to call it out. This help inspired some of his speeches about democracy last year, one in Philadelphia, one delivered in Washington just days before the midterm elections. We heard from him on that theme again not too long ago at the McCain Center in Arizona, that this is something this president, President Biden, feels deeply about.
Let’s recall, of course, that he launched his 2020 campaign after those Charlottesville marches and riots, which was also fueled by the same hate-filled, anti-immigrant, anti-other rhetoric. So the Biden team tells us that though it would have been unthinkable in American democracy not that long ago to have to evoke Hitler. When you talk about your political opponent, we’re in new territory here, the Biden team says. And if Trump’s going to use that kind of language, they’re going to call him on it.
“I also want to ask you about some new reporting from The Washington Post that says the Trump campaign expects to win enough delegates to secure the nomination by mid-March, which would, of course, overlap with the scheduled start of Trump’s federal election interference trial. I think in 2016 he didn’t clinch until May. How realistic do you think the Trump team’s analysis is and how significant would it be if Republican primaries really do end before Trump’s trials going into full swing?” Jansing asked.
“Yeah, it’s very realistic at this moment. The Trump team has been not shy in their confidence and suggesting they could wrap up this race soon after Super Tuesday,” Lemire replied, adding:
They’re briefing reporters about that. But those in the Biden campaign arm, they have the same analysis. They also think that Trump probably grabs the GOP nomination sometime in March, which would put us in a very, very, very early general election between two candidates that, frankly, polls suggest most Americans are not excited about. It’s also a race that could be extraordinarily expensive and a race that undoubtedly will be very, very ugly. But this is something that appears to be the that Trump appears to be on track. Yes, you are right.
It would then run up against some of his legal proceedings, though. The Trump team is trying to delay some of those. So it’s not quite clear when those trials will come to pass. And we should also, of course, note that it’s not quite a done deal yet. We have seen Nikki Haley with a little bit of momentum, particularly in New Hampshire, that maybe she could put a scare into Trump. But even with that Haley momentum that we noted in these new polls, Trump’s still up 15, 17, 20 points even in New Hampshire, and his lead in Iowa is 35 or more. So right now, he has a glide path to the GOP nomination, and it looks like we’re headed for that 2020 rematch.
Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.
