Watch Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, discuss the big issues of the week on Meet the Press.
Debate got heated when Rich argued with MSNBC’s Joy Reid about whether it is “crazy” for Reid to label Stephen Miller and Michael Anton as “white nationalists.”
Analyzing the comments of H. R. McMaster, President Trump’s national-security adviser, Rich explained:
It was really an extraordinary moment. Because obviously H. R. McMaster is a quick learner, he knows Washington-speak. But he used Washington-speak three times to basically answer your question: “No, I cannot work with Steve Bannon.”
Rich also detailed why Trump “has some running room” with Republican voters, laying out a “hierarchy of blame for his base if things continue not to go well.”
The media [is] first to be blamed, then congressional leadership — we’re now in that stage — then his staff, and then the last one who will be blamed is President Trump himself.
But I think this is foolhardy for a lot of reasons, including that [Trump] needs the party for scandal defense and he may conceivably need Mitch McConnell to run his defense and impeachment trial in the Senate in 2019, so I would not alienate them.