PBS Roundtable Hails ‘Rational’ Nikki Haley, But GOP ‘Emboldened to Say Racist Things’

Washington Week with The Atlantic

August 25, 2023

Laura Barron-Lopez: And definitely could impact him in the general election more than in the primary.

Domenico, as you heard, Trump suggested that his supporters could very well turn to violence due to these charges. And in response to this fourth arrest in Georgia, Sarah Palin also threatened violence.

Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK): Those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice, I want to ask them, what the heck? Do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Domenico, is this reflective of the base?

Domenico Montanaro, Senior Political Editor/Correspondent, NPR: Well, first of all, I haven’t heard Sarah Palin’s voice in a while. And I’m like having these flashbacks to the 2009 campaign — the 2008 campaign, you know, in covering that. And, you know, I would argue, frankly, that Sarah Palin really started a lot of this movement where we’re seeing this Republican Party having changed.

You know, I remember people ripping off the McCain part of the bumper sticker for McCain/Palin, and it was just Palin because she really had a lot of the heart and guts of the Republican Party. And then the Tea Party rose, and then we have someone like Donald Trump. It really didn’t come out of nowhere if you were covering the Tea Party at that time.

So, look, I think that the violence thing is something that is always going to be a danger. We had January 6th. That was something I think a lot of people thought. If you saw that on television happening, that you couldn’t then dismiss it, and yet where are we, right?

And we’ve seen that over and over again. A lot of Trump’s base just doesn’t buy these charges. They think that they’re made up. They think that they’re politically motivated despite the 91 counts, despite four different cases, despite the fact that you have New York and Georgia and two federal cases. That’s what we’ve seen.

You know, when we pulled on this starting in March and whether or not Trump did anything illegal, one area that it is sort of taking a toll on Trump is with Independents. Because back then, about 41 percent of people in the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll said that they thought Trump had done something illegal. When we polled on this, this past month, it was up to 52 percent now.

So, yes, his base still doesn’t buy it. They’re totally on board with Trump. He’s got a huge lead in the primaries, but he’s just made himself even more and more toxic for a general election.

Laura Barron-Lopez: On that, Daniella, you talked to House Republicans a lot, and, yes, they’ve been away the past — for these last two indictments related to the 2020 election. But are they admitting at all that this might be harmful to their general election prospects?

Daniella Diaz, Congressional Reporter, Politico: No, that’s not what they’re saying right now. And we’re seeing this flat out what’s happening even just this week. Even though they’re gone from Washington, Laura, Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed information from Fani Willis on her communication with the Department of Justice Communication Federal Funds because he continues to be the dominant arm in Congress to defend Donald Trump. And he is kind of the voice of what these House Republicans believe needs to happen to defend Donald Trump.

And they’re using — you know, they have the majority, they have subpoena power, and they’re going to go forward and try to defend him in this way, of course, arguing that the Department of Justice should be defunded, using this as a tactic to even shut down the government when they come back in just a week. But what we’re going to see and continue to see is Trump’s strongest supporters in Congress, you know, the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the Jim Jordans, a lot of the House Freedom Caucus members, the very loud members defend him and continue to say that this only makes him stronger.

And even Trump’s detractors say that. You know, I spoke to Thomas Massie, who endorsed DeSantis for president. And he said, you know, if only DeSantis would get indicted, he would become much stronger in the primary, should that happen, because it really is adding fuel to the fire for Trump in his base.

But, of course, adding to what Domenico said earlier, there is a base that is looking for an alternative, not that may be the dominant of a Republican Party, but that’s who is watching the debate on Wednesday with Trump not being in the room and seeing who do I want to support. And, you know, we clearly saw some winners.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Yes, I’ve talked to a few disenchanted Republicans who are certainly looking for someone like a Chris Christie or a Nikki Haley to emerge but don’t have strong hopes that they will.

Toluse, President Biden hasn’t uttered a word about the indictments. There seems to be somewhat of a debate among Democrats about whether or not he should. Is that going to change at all anytime soon?

Toluse Olurunnipa, White House Bureau Chief, The Washington Post: I don’t expect it to change. The president is running a Rose Garden strategy. He wants to be seen as president. He wants to be seen carrying out the duties of his office while the Republicans are in sort of the circus mode of indictments and debates that are chaotic and having people call each other names.

And so he wants that split screen to work out for him, and that’s what he’s been doing. He doesn’t want to touch these indictments with a ten-foot pole in part because Republicans are accusing him and his administration of weaponizing the Department of Justice and going after his political enemies with arrests and indictments.

And so he wants to be focused on just doing the job as president, showing what he’s done over the past couple of years and proving to the American people that if you stay with me, there’s not going to be the chaos that we have for four years under Trump, indictments and people being charged and people going to jail and people having to testify and grand juries and all the things that we’ve seen over the past several years with Trump.

Biden wants to say, I’m not doing that. I’m focusing on the work of the American people. I’m dealing with foreign policy. I’m dealing with world leaders. And that’s what we’re going to see for the next several months.

Now, other Democrats will point out the fact that, you know, Trump is indicted for undermining democracy and, you know, sparking what happened on January 6th. That is the big part of the campaign message for Democrats in 2024, defending democracy. And so they’ll engage with this, but the White House and the president are not going to touch this.

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Laura Barron-Lopez: And I want to get to the debate now, because there were a number of moments there that I think are worth highlighting. One of the biggest moments of the night came when Fox moderators asked this question about Trump.

Brett Baier, Host, Fox News: If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party’s choice? Please raise your hand if you would.

Laura Barron-Lopez: So, only six out of the eight did not raise their hand or said that they would not support him. Domenico, does that sum up the state of the primary race?

Domenico Montanaro: Yes. I mean, it was only Asa Hutchinson from Arkansas and Chris Christie from New Jersey who said…