Ari Melber Plays 1987 Clip of Trump Struggling to Name the Best Book He’s Read – Other Than His Own
Ari Melber said the Republican Party has increasingly embraced politicians “who know very little or nothing,” and that Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are in part to blame.
On Tuesday the MSNBC host pointed to QAnon conspiracy theorists and the antics of Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who recently alleged he’d been invited to a cocaine-fueled orgy among D.C.’s elite.
Melber pointed to Palin’s announcement that she’s running for the open U.S. House seat in Alaska and stated she was “one of the early Republicans in this type of mold.”
He said that “she and Trump led the party away from facts, away from policy, towards just fixating on content, entertainment, lies.”
Melber added that the Trump/Palin wing of the GOP is reminiscent of the anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party of the mid-19th century.
“Palin and Trump struggled to even publicly prove that they read things and that turned out to be a selling point for many of their fans,” he continued.
He then played a 2008 clip of Palin – at the time the Republican vice presidential nominee – infamously failing to name newspapers she reads. Melber also played a lesser known snippet of Trump on CNN’s Crossfire in 1987 with Pat Buchanan and Tom Braden.
The future president struggled to come up with the name of his favorite book – other than The Art of the Deal.
BUCHANAN: Who are your favorite authors?
TRUMP: Well, I have a number of favorite authors. I think Tom Wolfe is excellent.
BUCHANAN: Did you read Vanity of the Bonfires? [sic]
TRUMP: I did not.
BRADEN: What book are you reading now?
BUCHANAN: Bonfire of the Vanities. Excuse me.
TRUMP: I’m reading my own book again because I think it’s so fantastic, Tom.
BUCHANAN: What’s the best book you’ve read beside Art of the Deal?
TRUMP: I really liked Tom Wolfe’s last book.
BUCHANAN: Which book?
TRUMP: His current book. His, his, just his current book that’s just out.
BUCHANAN: Bonfire of the Vanities.
TRUMP: Yes.
“That was the book he just said he hadn’t read,” Melber responded. “Those are the type of political role models that Madison Cawthorn grew up with.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
