problem. i think that actually what drew me to this, i mean partly i wanted to call out the long con as i call it. more interesting to me was what is it that makes this billionaire who s already famous, rich, so obsessed with getting the political class to take him seriously, right? why is he so interested in this. and you concluded what? my conclusion was that, you know, at the end of the day, he s already done real estate, he s already done reality tv. he has fame. what he wants is credibility. what he wants is for at least some segment of the population to look at him as a serious person. and the problem and kind of great tragedy of him is that he doesn t know how to do that. he is a tremendous manipulator of the media, always has been and i don t say manipulator as pejorative. he knows how to work it. he can teach others how to do it. correct. this has been one of his really impressive characteristics. i will say to mckay s thing, saying he s part of the problem, we now h
to be on the brink of collapse. the reason, nobody seems to believe him anymore. trump was livid. he got rid of the aide who talked him into doing the interview, attacked buzzfeed, attacked coppins wife. at the mansion he showed a picture of his wife and baby he said that s a good looking woman. trump took that back and claimed this on twitter. that coppens was a slob of a reporter who doesn t understand my sarcasm talking about him and his wife who wrote a foolish and boring trump hit? boring? i think not. it raises an important question, why have reporters taken trump s political flirtations so seriously for so long? will they just finally say no now? joining me here are mckay coppens and maggie haberman a political reporter for politico. maggie, since you have written stories about trump over the years, i want to start with you, do you think we re at the point he shouldn t be taken seriously
don t sign up for it, thereby, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and obama care fails. now, look, if obama care succeeds either way, the republicans, having tried 48, whatever times to repeal it, are not going to look good either way. so they re pretty much all in in terms of making this, dooming this program to the greatest extent that they can. and, you know, the program is going to and the president s fortunes and the republican fortunes are going to rise or fall based on the success of this program and not what anybody says. absolutely. mckay, senate majority leader harry reid believes that ted cruz, being the gop nominee in 2016, would actually prove to be the end of the gop. take a listen to this. if i didn t care so much about our country, i would hope he would get the republican nomination for president. because that would be the end of the republican party. what do you think? i think a lot of republicans are not too enthusiastic about taking advice from harry reid.
you had a couple of those other clips you played, but i think they were kind of didn t know what to do and instead they went off down that yellow brick road and were attacked by flying monkeys and fields of poppy and things. yes, they were. mckay, how much longer does the gop simply define itself by what it s against? it s against the affordable care act. they offer no alternative. they oppose the president on syria. today we ve had some encouraging news with regard to the dismantling of chemical weapons. cantor, boehner, they say we re speaking on behalf of the american people. the american people want solutions. they want constructive solutions. these people aren t representing anything. well, i think you ve actually heard a growing number of republicans both in washington and outside say that, you know, the party needs to pig year out what its agenda is. what are our ideas? what is the point of our opposition to obama? obviously, you know, with the obama care rollout, as a great
in the wizard of oz land. if you only had a brain i use the line about the wizard of oz, in oz, it s more important what the perception is than the reality is. that s not funny. i don t know how you keep your cool, madame secretary with this continuous effort on the part of the gop to sabotage the aca. i think it s great that you re a team player and taking responsibility. it is the president s ultimate responsibility, correct? you clearly whatever. scare people. and bring up red herrings. she dodged questions. she made up facts. be afraid. be very afraid. and continued to be dishonest with you, the american people. you can look all around. nothing but as far as the eye can see. let s get right to our panel from washington and the washington post is dana milbank. in the studio, mckay coppens, political editor of buzz feed.