Now keeping Them Honest a case of condemning the Sin but not the Sinner the nation's two top Republican lawmakers did just that today about the former president's recent dinner with the antisemitic artist Yay and the antisemitic Holocaust-denying white nationalist leader Nick Fuentes.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both condemned the whole dining with a white nationalist thing, but neither one directly condemned the actual person who broke bread with the actual white nationalists.
And how they each avoided doing it is fascinating and telling. Leader McCarthy simply said something that isn't true. I don't figure anyone ought to invest any energy with Scratch fluents. He is not welcome in this Conservative Faction.
I think President Trump came out multiple times and denounced him and didn't have the foggiest idea what his identity was. Wrong. He didn't do that. Yes, Trump did say he didn't know who Nick fences is. No, he did not condemn him at all, not once.
And while it's impossible to read the man's mind, telling that lie certainly helped Leader McCarthy avoid directly criticizing the former president. It suggested, falsely, that no criticism was even necessary, because, after all, hadn't the former president already done as much himself by condemning Nick Fuentes?
Except, of course, he never did. The former president posted about the dinner three times, the first time saying he knew nothing about the antisemitic artists. Three friends he brought to dinner, then a day later saying, quote also, I didn't know Nick Fuentes.
Finally, most recently saying, quote, he shows up with three people, two of which I didn't know, the other a political person I haven't seen in years. He also stated Axio saying the antisemite artist arrived with a guest whom he'd never met and knew nothing about.
And just moments ago on Fox Digital, he said he didn't know Fuente's views before having dinner with him and again, did not. Condemn those views. No place on the web or elsewhere on record has the previous president denounced Scratch Fuentes.
Nor have many Republicans directly called Trump out by name for dining with the man Senator Mitt Romney has. Arkansas Governor Ethan Hutchinson did. So did former New Jersey governor Chris Church Christie, and most notably, former Vice President Mike Pence.
President Trump was inappropriate to give a white patriot a racist and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table, and I figure he ought to apologize for it, and he ought to reprimand those people and their contemptuous way of talking without capability.
So you wouldn't think it would be so hard just on general principle, but apparently, it is. Contrast that with this today from Mitch McConnell as you try to figure out who, if anyone, specific at all he's talking about.
First, let me just say there is no room in the Republican Party for anti-Semitism or white supremacy, and anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, is exceptionally far-fetched to at any point be chosen Leader of the US.
To see what he did there. Unlike Leader McCarthy, who avoided directly condemning the former president by trotting out a specific and transparent lie, leader McConnell, who was far more careful about what he said was generic and opaque.
So careful, so generic, and so opaque, that when asked to follow up by Manu Raju, he not only continued to keep his pointing finger pointed away from Donald Trump, he won't even rule out voting for the then-again light.
Of what you said that there's no room in your party when the harbor is an anti-Semitic view. On the off chance that Donald Trump wins the conservative selection, could you uphold him? Once more, see, let me say, there is no room in the Conservative Faction for discrimination against Jews or racial domination.
And that would apply to all of the leaders in the party who will be seeking officers. So only the sin, never the sinner. The former President, though, has no trouble naming names in that interview tonight with Fox Digital, he certainly did, attacking Senator McConnell by name.
Joining us now is a senior political commentator and former top Obama adviser David Axelrod, also political commentator Scott Jennings, who was close to Leader McConnell and served as special assistant to the President in the George W.
Bush administration. Scott, when we spoke last night, right at this time, you said you expected McCarthy would take the temperature of his comment before commenting in that quote that's the one thing about these guys in leadership is they tend to take the temperature of the people they represent before they make comments.
So these comments he made the sort of the half hedge and then lie there, what does that tell you about the temperature he found? Well, what I said was I thought they would both consult with the members of their conference and come out and make statements today.
I was right. Both made statements both clearly and unequivocally stating that people like Nick went to and the hateful ideology that he talks about has no place in the Republican Party. They both said that today.
So I was glad to hear that. Regarding the condemning four times, I don't know what he was doing there. I got the feeling he was confused about the difference between condemning and saying, I don't know who it is.
But either way, that's not true. Trump hasn't condemned it, and I suspect that he won't because this is his pattern. He does dumb stuff and then he tightens down and never quite, you know, figures out a way back to doing the right.
But that's why a lot of Republicans must be doing the right thing here. Like McConnell, like McCarthy, and clearly and unequivocally stated there's no room for this in the Republican Party whatsoever.
Well, McCarthy either made something up or the most charitable version of it was confused, as you say there. Does that indicate to you that he's still trying to walk some line or trying still to curry favor?
Was some part of his caucus that doesn't like the idea of criticizing having dinner with a white nationalist? I think what he said was very clear about saying this ideology has no place in the Republican Party.
He wants no part of it. And I think that was the best message he could deliver beyond that. Look, I don't know how much more clearly you could say, I don't want this party that I represent and I plan to be the speaker of the House of this Republican Party.
I don't know how much more clearly you can say, I don't want any part of it. And that's what he should have done, right? I mean, you could do it without making something up. David Axelrod, your assessment of a few verbal gymnastics, particularly from.
Kevin McCarthy well, look, here's the situation. Kevin McCarthy still isn't guaranteed that he's going to be the speaker of the House. He needs Donald Trump's support to become speaker of the House, and he's going to need Donald Trump's support because Trump has sway over that group of a smaller group of legislators who are committed to him, the Freedom Caucus folks.
So he is twisting himself in all kinds of knots here to try and not offend Trump but say enough to condemn antisemitism and Holocaust denial and so on. So he may not become speaker of the House, John, but he could get a spot in Cirque du Soleil by the time this thing is.
Scott's right. Scott not only said last night that both Republican leaders should, but he also predicted that they would. Say something today. Absolutely. Scott did that. But again, McCarthy, it does seem like a man in his position knows what he's doing when he says those kinds of things.
And there was some kind of deliberate signal. Oh, there's no question about it. Listen, if Scott said they couldn't have been more forthright and demeaning this well, Pence was more forthright. Hutchinson was more forthright.
The fact of the matter is that the former president sat down with these folks, and if you're not willing to condemn that, then you're being evasive. And I think that they're doing they're navigating their caucuses.
This is the same story we've seen for some time. I think the glacier is melting here and Trump is more vulnerable than he's ever been. There's blood in the water, and people are a little bit more venturesome than they've been, but still, they were very, very cautious today, in my view.
David Axelrod, Scott Jennings. Our thanks to both of you. We'll get more 100% predictions from Scott in the future, hopefully next.