Chuck Todd: Trump’s ‘Miserable Mood’ Hurt His Defense of National Emergency, He Looked ‘Defeated’
In his first reaction to Donald Trump‘s statements from the White House, NBC’s Chuck Todd observed that the president does not seem to be in a great mood, and he might’ve just damaged his own legal position once his national emergency declaration goes to court.
Todd joined Hallie Jackson on Friday to assess Trump’s confirmation that he’s declaring a national emergency in order to requisition money from various areas of the government to build his southern border wall. Todd began by noting how Trump usually puts his emotions on full display in his various political engagements, and he thought the president seemed “miserable” and it hurt his delivery.
“He’s in a miserable mood about it, that’s why he’s having such a hard time championing it. He’s been told this will likely not work. This will slow things down. He has been told all of these things, which is why I think it came across not as a victorious President Trump, but a defeated President Trump. To be honest, that’s the most defeated you’ll see him…He was trying to will himself into at least making this not feel as bad as it was.”
As Todd continued by saying Trump knows “he’s going to lose” the legal battle over his emergency, he and Jackson took note of how the president told NBC’s Peter Alexander “I didn’t need to” declare the emergency but did so to expedite his political agenda. To that point, Todd said “I think he made his case a lot harder” by admitting he did this for political reasons.
“If you’re the solicitor general here and you have to defend the president’s order on this, you’re sitting there going ‘my worst witness is the president himself,” Todd said. “[Trump] made [his case] a lot harder by essentially admitting this was a political decision, not based on anything other than a gut feeling or other statistics he looks at.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
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