This quick exchange with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Chuck Todd on Meet the Press is a good illustration of how the GOP is now a thoroughly Trumpist party.
CHUCK TODD: “Why doesn’t the president think that? Doing this, it’s just stoking racial resentment, left and right. He’s done it multiple times this month alone. He obviously thinks this is good politics, inside the Republican Party. Do you think it’s good politics, inside the Republican Party?”
RICK SCOTT: “Well, Chuck, let’s look at what he said, all right, and why he did it. Congressman Cummings has sat there and attacked our Border Patrol agents, all right? This reminds me of what happened to soldiers coming back from Vietnam.”
CHUCK TODD: “But that justifies a racial resentment tweet in response? Is that presidential leadership?”
RICK SCOTT: “Well, look, I didn’t do the tweets, Chuck. I can’t talk about why he did what he did. But I’m very disappointed in the people, like Congressman Cummings, who is attacking Border Patrol agents that are trying to do their job, when the Democrats won’t give them the resources to do it. They won’t secure the border. They won’t fix the asylum laws. And then Democrats want to sit there and say, “Oh, those Border Patrol agents don’t care.” Let me tell you, I’ve been to the border. I’ve talked to Border Patrol agents. I know they care about these individuals. But we have got to give them the resources and the ability to do their job.”
Says the country is divided “because of a lot of things,” and would like everybody to come together and work together:
CHUCK TODD: “It’s not lost on me that you were harsher on Elijah Cummings than you were on the president and of what he’s done. You seem hesitant to do this, to criticize the president, individually, on these things.
