Politics

Does Trump Really Want Republicans to Win in Georgia?

THE NEW ABNORMAL

Or would that undermine his fragile ego? George Conway and Baratunde Thurston join Molly Jong-Fast and Rick Wilson to discuss on The New Abnormal.

201201-new-abnormal-trump-tease_basuiz
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

Trump is headed to Georgia this week, where there’s about to be a pair of special elections to decide the balance of the Senate. But don’t expect the president to really talk up his Republican, MAGA AF buds in the race, George Conway says. “It’s better for him and better for his ego if they lose.”

Trump has a problem, George explains to Molly-Jong Fast and Rick Wilson on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. Well, two. First, “Republicans did better than he did” in the general election. Not only does “that undercut his claim of fraud… it means that there were significant numbers of Republicans who couldn't stomach him. And that's the reason why he lost and all these other people won.”

So now Trump is hate-tweeting Georgia’s Republican governor and Republican secretary of state. And he’s doing his damnedest to tell his followers that their votes don’t count, that they’re sure to be stolen.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It was amazing to see [RNC chair] Ronna McDaniel desperately try to explain to Republicans why they need to vote in an election that will decide the balance of the Senate,” Molly remarks.

“It was like watching a walrus trying to fuck a beach ball. It's so awkward,” Rick replies.

Then Baratunde Thurston—host of the new podcast How to Citizen—joins Molly for a frank discussion about what led to Trumpism, and how we avoid falling for it again. He’s got a number of structural reforms in mind, to take money out of politics and put it back on the street. But there’s more.

“I want a lot of tribunals, Molly. I want COVID tribunals because I think there are political leaders who have blood on their hands that they need to be held to account for it. And I want some kind of like media tribunals because a lot of the media establishments created this fiction that is Donald Trump,” Baratunde says.

Speaking of media monsters, Rick and Molly have had it with a certain interviewer formally known as the “Money Honey.”

“Maria Bartiromo was once considered a legitimate and serious journalist,” Rick says. “And now she's being fitted for a pink hanbok, much like the North Korean propaganda lady who sits at the screen and stares and screams about the glory of the Kim Jong Un family. She allowed Donald Trump to go on television this weekend on the airwaves of Fox and bleed out the craziest horseshit you've ever heard.”

Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.