There were moments over the past month when President Donald Trump and his advisers were hopeful “confused” Democrats would “split” with their colleagues and make concessions to get the government reopened. “It appears the folks who were confused this morning and split are some of the president's conservative allies,” CNN’s John Berman said on Monday.
The New Day crew played a series of clips from right-wing pundits who have, to this point, acted as the glue holding together Trump’s ever-shrinking base.
On the one hand there are people like Ann Coulter, who told Bill Maher she was a “very stupid girl” for believing Trump’s “lies” about building a wall and Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs who hailed Nancy Pelosi’s “victory” over Trump. “She just whipped the president of the United States,” Dobbs said. “He just reversed himself.”
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On the other, there were Fox News stalwarts like Sean Hannity, who told viewers, “The president, well, he showed leadership, rose above the partisan bickering in the swamp, offering relief to federal workers all while sticking to his commitment to secure our border.” Jeanine Pirro declared in no uncertain terms, “He did not cave!”
That line in particular drew belly laughs from the New Day hosts and panel with Alisyn Camerota remarking, “You can tell very clearly from this who still wants to go to Mar-a-Lago.”
“Yeah, seriously,” The Daily Beast’s former editor-in-chief John Avlon added. “‘You stop picking on my friend Donald,’ says Jeanine Pirro.” At the same time, he offered a literal chef’s kiss to the idea of Coulter “discovering the president lies.”
Former Clinton administration press secretary Joe Lockhart suggested that the Fox News marketing department “took a poll and said we better still be with the president.” He added later, “But if he wants to govern he's got to be able to take on Ann Coulter.”
Over the weekend, Trump pushed back fairly gently against his conservative detractors, telling the Wall Street Journal that Coulter is “very hostile” and adding, “maybe I didn’t return her phone calls or something.”
