President Trump made Democrats “look like fools” last week when he denied military aircraft to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for an overseas trip the day after she suggested he delay the State of the Union address until the partial government shutdown is over, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews admitted on his show last week.
“[Democrats] were in the bus heading to Joint Base (Andrews),” Matthews fumed to the panel on his program, “Hardball.” “He made them look like fools sitting in the Capitol in the driveway, basically trying to figure out what’s coming next. He caught them in the act as if they were sneaking out of town and made them look stupid.”
Matthews, who is typically critical of the president, then characterized the move as a “political dirty trick” on the part of Trump.
Ben Rhodes, an MSNBC analyst who served in the Obama administration, chimed in: “I’m trying to imagine the discussion in the White House where they decide, ‘Oh, we have to get Pelosi back for what she did,’ and someone is scouring the schedule and somehow thinks it’s a good idea to embarrass the speaker of the House and to deny our troops that expression of support from the third-ranking person in line to the presidency in our system.”
Rhodes said the tit-for-tat sent a “horrible message” message to the world, which he surmised was collectively thinking: “What’s going on in the United States of America?” – READ MORE