Michael Steele Aghast at Trump Base Ignoring Attack on CDC Director: ‘40% of The Country…Goes Yeah, I’m With Stupid’

Former RNC chair Michael Steele expressed his dismay and disgust over President Donald Trump’s assault on science and his own CDC director, and bemoaned the fact that the attack would have no effect on his loyal base — even amid a global pandemic.

After Dr. Robert Redfield contradicted the president’s narrative on both the timing of a Covid vaccine rollout as well as the efficacy of mask wearing at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Trump very clearly tried to walk back his own CDC director’s under-oath testimony while appearing to differentiate the relevance of Americans deaths in red vs. blue states. Redfield however, after his public dressing down, notably released a statement later that same day that did not bend to Trump’s claims he was “mistaken” or “confused.”

Steele, in a panel discussion on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, did not attempt to hide his displeasure with Trump and those who continue to support him.

“You can live your whole life and not hear a president without a sense of stewardship over the country, instead itemized deaths in states run by Democrats. That was the extraordinary part about today,” host Brian Williams noted. “Michael, a lot of his base lives in that list.”

“They do and they don’t care,” Steele said. “I’ve talked to enough of them over the last few days, I’m exhausted. You know at this point, it’s like save who you can save because there is only so much you can do. There is only so much you can say. The fact that we have to — we have to literally beg people to wear a mask to save their own butt from getting sick, I’m sorry. To me, it is beyond the imagination.”

“I’m so exhausted with this president, at this point, in the face of what we see happening on college campuses right now as we turn into fall, we all knew this was coming and yet, this administration has done jack about it,” Steele added, his frustration rising. “This president stands at a podium today and not only contradicts his CDC director, but basically says he perjured himself under oath before Congress because he is saying something different from Donald Trump. The CDC director is telling us the truth and Donald Trump is literally lying to us and yet, 40% of the country looks at it and goes: ‘Yeah, I’m with stupid.'”

Steele then emphasized that voters face a stark choice this fall.

“I don’t know what more you can take before you say you’ve had enough. Because my heavens, this is too much for a country to go through,” he continued, before starting to crack up in exasperation. “I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know how many more of these conversations we can have, Brian. I don’t know, I’m a little tired of it, can we just vote right now? Can we just get this done so we can heal the country and just move on?”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.