Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), suggested on MSNBC’s The Weekend on Saturday that former President Donald Trump should “lock himself in a room.”
Steele’s comments came after he and his co-hosts showed a clip from a speech Trump, the GOP’s presidential nominee, gave in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday in which he personally attacked his opponent in November’s election, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Kamala is an unusual name, but at least you know who we’re talking about. When I say Harris, nobody knows who the hell I’m talking about. They say, ‘Who is that?’ So maybe we’ll refer to her more as Kamala. It’s a little friendlier too, but it’s hard to be friendly with somebody that wants to destroy our country,” Trump said. “She’s right now practicing. Do you know that? She’s in Pennsylvania and she’s practicing for the debate. She’s locked herself in a room. She’s got a lot to learn.”
After the clip ended, Steele, a Trump critic, said, “Perhaps he should lock himself in a room and learn a few things.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment and MSNBC for comment from Steele via email on Saturday morning.
As the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump gets closer, the former president is prioritizing insults over issues. @BasilSmiklePhD calls Trump’s this a “desperate” tactic. pic.twitter.com/4XD6ka9iwn
— The Weekend on MSNBC (@TheWeekendMSNBC) September 7, 2024
On Tuesday, Trump and Harris will go toe-to-toe on the ABC News debate stage for the first time. Nerves and excitement will be high that night as Americans tune in to the much-anticipated debate in Philadelphia, following a dismal performance from President Joe Biden in Atlanta in late June when he went up against Trump.
Biden’s weak showing created panic in the Democratic Party, with some urging him to exit the race so the party could pick a new nominee. Weeks later on July 21, Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign and tapped Harris to take his place. Harris then launched her own bid for president, which was met with a lot of excitement from Democrats. She later accepted the nomination for the party at the Democratic National Convention on August 22.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Harris is “holed up” for five days in a hotel room in Pittsburgh in preparation for the debate. While Harris’ debate prep is “highly choreographed,” as the Times put it, Trump’s campaign is not even calling it “debate prep” but rather “policy time” in which the former president has held a few sessions so far.
Former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall on September 4 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), suggested on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Saturday that…
Former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall on September 4 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), suggested on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Saturday that Trump should “lock himself in a room.”
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On Saturday’s show, Steele asked Dr. Basil A. Smikle, an MSNBC political analyst, “How do you see [Trump’s] approach to Kamala, the vice president, going into this campaign?”
“They’ve become more and more ad-hominem. They’re much more personal. But when you combine that with the way he’s been speaking in the last week, particularly at the Economic Club of New York, he sounds more incoherent than I think we’ve ever heard him,” Smikle replied.
He continued: “It sounds desperate. It clearly sounds like he and his team know that they’re…kind of losing the narrative. I think if he feels and his team feels that they can’t grow their support, the best way to win is to diminish her. And the way that they’re doing it is by trying to tap into a sense that this woman of color is not qualified for the role.”
Smikle said this is a “very common” and “very old tactic,” adding that Trump is “doubling down on that language every single time that he talks about her, not even using her name correctly.”
In the clip of Trump shown on The Weekend, he pronounced Kamala’s name as Ka-mala instead of the correct pronunciation of Comma-la.
“I said that when she became the nominee, his attacks were going to get pretty bad. And they are. But what I like is that I don’t think they’re working. They’re not sticking because the enthusiasm, as you talk about the sort of juice of these last two months, means that everybody feels deputized to be able to push back,” Smikle said.
Newsweek also reached out to Smikle via email for comment on Saturday morning.
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Publish date : 2024-09-07 05:43:00
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