Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
Appearing as a guest on Friday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC contributor Jonathan Alter declared that President Donald Trump and Republican governors have "rivers of blood" on their hands because of the pandemic, and that the President is a "public health menace."
After host O'Donnell read a piece from New York magazine columnist Frank Rich chastising the Trump campaign's recent performance, Alter went after the administration for trying to end ObamaCare, leaving people to be "thrown to the wolves":
JONATHAN ALTER: The American people, especially when there's a pandemic, do not want to be thrown to the wolves -- they do not want to have to declare personal bankruptcy or sell their home if somebody in their family gets sick. And that, in effect, is what Donald Trump is running on. "If you elect me, I will leave you high and dry on health care."
He called Trump a "political idiot" as he added:
It's like an anti-campaign, and, you know, we've always overestimated, I think, Lawrence, because of 2016 of how good this guy is politically. He's actually a political idiot if you look at his inability to extend from his base is political malpractice. His base isn't enough to reelect him.
A bit later, after O'Donnell read breaking news of a court ruling requiring that illegal immigrant children be released from detention centers because of the pandemic, Alter further lambasted Trump:
ALTER: Right. Cruelty doesn't work, Not protecting people's public health doesn't work politically. Look, you could give them a little bit of a break In February and March when this was a new thing -- okay, he was asleep at the switch. It was pretty bad -- then it gets worse when he was giving out misinformation. Now, he's a public health menace, and he has rivers of blood on his hands because of what he and these Republican governors have done.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, June 27, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC:
10:27 p.m. Eastern
JONATHAN ALTER: If you went into a laboratory and designed a horrible campaign, you'd come up with Trump 2020, on top of everything else, because words speak louder -- deeds speak louder than words. Where is his administration last night? They're in court trying to repeal protections for people with preexisting conditions. This is how they lost the House of Representatives in 2018.
The American people, especially when there's a pandemic, do not want to be thrown to the wolves -- they do not want to have to declare personal bankruptcy or sell their home if somebody in their family gets sick. And that, in effect, is what Donald Trump is running on. "If you elect me, I will leave you high and dry on health care."
It's like an anti-campaign, and, you know, we've always overestimated, I think, Lawrence, because of 2016 of how good this guy is politically. He's actually a political idiot if you look at his inability to extend from his base is political malpractice. His base isn't enough to reelect him.
(…)
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: And, Jonathan, on the breaking news of this hour tonight, we have a federal judge ruling that the United States must release children from family detention centers, which just reminds the country of how bad and how cruel Trump governing policies were before we got to the cruelty exhibited in the pandemic where the President simply walks away from the challenge of simply protecting this country from the coronavirus.
ALTER: Right. Cruelty doesn't work, Not protecting people's public health doesn't work politically. Look, you could give them a little bit of a break In February and March when this was a new thing -- okay, he was asleep at the switch. It was pretty bad -- then it gets worse when he was giving out misinformation. Now, he's a public health menace, and he has rivers of blood on his hands because of what he and these Republican governors have done.
It's not March anymore -- they knew what they had to do, but they made the political decision -- the problem for them is it wasn't a political decision -- it was an idiotic decision politically on top of being very, very damaging to public health. So now I think he's in a downward spiral now, and unless Joe Biden nominates somebody far to the left for (Vice) President, I don't see a path back for Trump.