consequences and the consequences not necessarily something bad happening, it is calling out the crazy. it is calling out the lie of the moment. it is saying right there, if any of those other let me tell you, that jeb bush moment on that stage, if any of the republican on that stage backed jeb bush up when he went after trump and called him out, it would be a very different i told jeb bush i thought he should have punched him in the face. even if you lost, he insulted your wife, he came down the escalator and called he said what do you think i should have done, i said i think you should have punched him in the face and then got out of the race. he s bringing him down. all he did was call dad an assassin, and but i need his help. a lot of it is, like, i keep thinking of a guy driving, woman or man, bought a new car, it is all clean, smells nice, new car smell, you get this brand-new car. and along comes this guy driving a it is beat up, rusty, it is
abbreviated and somewhat dumbed down, you might say. but it raises the question as to whether white house officials like president trump, like jared kushner, were ever briefed on this. it s uncertain whether they may have been briefed before jamal khashoggi disappeared, but it s a virtual certainty that after jamal khashoggi disappeared last week that the intelligence community would have presented senior policymakers, to include the president and his son-in-law, with this information given that jamal khashoggi had been disappeared. you know, over the past year or so, the white house has crowed about jared kushner s security clearance. when he finally was granted that top-secret security clearance he sought for so many months they said it was vindication. now it may be a huge liability because it means that jared kushner was eligible to receive that information. he could well have had access to that information. and the question is, if he acted on it, before jamal khashoggi disappeared
they want a candidate in 2020 in particular who can go toe-to-toe with donald trump in a debate, in the national stage, on twitter and not let him get the upper hand the way we saw him get the upper hand on, what was it, 18 other primary opponents in the gop primary in 2016. 16, plus me and michael steele. you can be strong. you can be a badass and not be dirty. this seems to be the trap democrats have themselves in. what michelle obama is saying is be tough and strong but stay on the high road. don t disparage minorities or women. don t be a misogynist and racist. just win. and i think that was the trap that those 18 republicans, 16 actually, fell into in trying to go toe-to-toe with trump. we saw it with marco rubio. hand size and when he got into that murky
water with trump, trump was like, yeah, baby, this is where i live. come on in. this is where i live now. come on in. the water is warm. or slimy. everybody goes diving plays. so because that s not how we do our politics. it goes back to what you were saying before about journalists. we have got to rise she s right to the first lady is right to we have to rise above the conversation that trump wants to have. and you don t have to be in the gutter to show what it is to be in the gutter and how that is not american. that is not who we are. not how we raise our kids. that s not how donald trump presumably raises his son. but yet and still that s how he projects out to the rest of the country, and you have these yahoos, folks standing behind him screaming yeah, yeah, yeah, but go home and what do you say to your kid then, how do you converse with your child about your behavior as an adult in that community. that s what the first lady was talking about. i think your point, tho
have your bromance moment. but the american people see through it and see it for what it is. and if you think the black community is going to wake up and go, he met with kanye. i think i ll go vote for trump. that s not how that works. i want you to keep talking, but let me just ask you one follow up. and then i want to hear more of your thoughts. i think this is what stuns me about this white house. how do none of them know what you just said? you know, it s how do they not know? well, because for them, this is a prop moment. this is not a substantive moment where you d bring in leaders of, you know, the black community, hispanic community and others. particularly around the folks who are impacted in florida. if you want to connect the dot that way. this is not about that. this is about entertaining the president s passions. and fulfilling his desire to be the front and center moment.