Panelists on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” fretted over the “low drama” campaign of former President Donald Trump Monday, comparing his prior electoral bids to “a soap opera.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski brought Vanity Fair writer Gabriel Sherman on the show to discuss his article, “Inside the Terrifyingly Competent Trump 2024 Campaign,” which published Thursday on the magazine’s website, to discuss Trump’s third run for the White House. Sherman noted that the stakes for Trump were high. (RELATED: ‘Go Straight To Hell’: Joe Scarborough Rants Against Netanyahu And His Backers)
“The big story in 2016 and to some extent 2020, was that his campaign was a soap opera. It was clashing personalities, it was nonstop drama,” Sherman told Brzezinski and Scarborough. “This cycle, the thing I’ve been struck by time and again, is that it is a low-drama campaign. Operatives don’t want press, don’t want their egos out there. They’re focused on getting Trump to the White House in November 2024.”
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“As I write in the piece, his freedom is at stake, really, the only thing that is guaranteed to keep Donald Trump out of jail is becoming the next president of the United States and appointing an attorney general who will get these charges thrown out,” Sherman continued. “It’s really that simple. I think that is really why you see Donald Trump so focused. Yes, he says incendiary things on the stump, but when it comes to the mechanics of running the campaign, it is a much different operation.” (RELATED: ‘Abusive’: Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett Say Jack Smith Using ‘Intimidation Tactics’ Against Trump Judge)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg secured a 34-count indictment against Trump in March 2023 over an alleged $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump is also facing two federal indictments from special counsel Jack Smith relating to efforts to contest the 2020 election and allegations surrounding classified documents in addition to an indictment handed down by a Fulton County grand jury Aug. 14, charging Trump and other associates, including former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City and attorneys Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Sidney Powell, over the former president’s efforts to contest the 2020 election results in that state.
“This is a candidate who does create his own controversies, but, you know, that really is baked in now, I think, to his brand,” Sherman said. “I think the mechanics, the underlying ground game, you know, the getting the state parties in line, getting the Republican national committee in line is really, I think, what is fueling this success he’s had on the campaign trail. Now, apparently, he’s got the money behind him, as well.”
“Jason Miller said if they win the election, the White House will be staffed only with loyalists. They’ve weeded out the backstabbers,” Sherman added. “The really important figure in the whole drama is Johnny McEntee, who is Donald Trump’s former body man in the 2016 cycle. He rose up in Trump world and became the head of White House personnel in the Trump administration. His job is really to vet thousands and thousands of potential appointees who will go into the civil service and carry out the MAGA agenda.” (RELATED: ‘Shocking’: CNN Panelist Aghast Biden Doesn’t Have Wider Lead On Issue He Constantly Knocks Trump Over)
Trump currently leads President Joe Biden by 0.3% in the RealClearPolitics average of general election polls for a head-to-head matchup. Trump’s lead grows to 1.8% when Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidates Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are included.
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