Nicolle Wallace slams GOP on Medicaid cuts: 'Mitch McConnell doesn't give a you-know-what'

And the party that brought you, well, we're all going to die, comes, quote, they'll get over it. Republicans doubling and tripling down today on their naked callousness and public indifference to the suffering of their own constituents. Also that Donald Trump can do a victory lap in the now bulldozed Rose Garden. That quote, they'll get over it, comes from none other than former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Unlike Senator Joni Ernst's grim and dismissive response to her own constituents' face, she's the one that said, we're all going to die. McConnell was talking about the same thing, those massive cuts to Medicaid. Punchbowl News reports that Mitch McConnell's comment happened in a closed door meeting of the Senate Republican caucus, where Mitch McConnell said regarding Trump's so-called big beautiful bill, this, quote, failure isn't an option. Quote, I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid, but they'll get over it. It is worth noting that Medicaid isn't some obscure opt-in optional program. According to one poll, 69% of all Americans say that someone close to them has used Medicaid at some point in their lives. 56% of all Americans say that either they or a family member have at some point been on Medicaid, been covered by Medicaid. In a statement, a spokesperson for Mitch McConnell said the senator was talking about, quote, the people who are abusing Medicaid, the able-bodied Americans who should be working, end quote. It's not exactly a denial of what he said. If anything, the statement implies that McConnell believes that people affected by cuts to Medicaid are some massive pool of 16 million freeloaders who choose not to work and will, in his words, his quote, get over it. Perhaps he should say that to the people who have appeared at town hall meetings in every corner of our country, expressing genuine fear and frustration and anger over Trump's legislative agenda, moments like these. Another personal observation about the requalification or refiling for Medicaid going to be twice a year under this bill. When my daughter was alive, I got to experience how difficult that is, and it causes a lot of personal heartache and headache. It is not simple, and for a lot of folks, it just isn't simple. 21% of Iowans are on Medicaid, and our rural hospital in Jefferson County Health Center drives 14% of its patient revenue from Medicaid. Will you vote for a reconciliation bill that damages the health of Iowans and makes healthcare less accessible? When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million, 1.4, they're not, they are not eligible, so they will be coming off. So we, people are not, well, we all are going to die. So for heaven's sakes, for heaven's sakes, folks. Today's Republican Party folks, that is who they are. But what makes Mitch McConnell's indifference to the response from his own voters, fear and anger of actual Republican voters, is that at the same meeting where he said that, North Carolina Republican Tom Tillis was warning his colleagues that gutting Medicaid is a political disaster for him and the entire GOP. Punchbowl News reports that Tillis, arguably one of the most vulnerable Republicans up for election next year, passed around a flyer to his colleagues in which he, quote, warned GOP senators that Republicans will suffer major electoral losses in 2026 if the Senate's Medicaid provider tax framework becomes law. That's according to three Republican senators. Tillis compared it to the Obamacare backlash that hampered Democrats a decade ago. He's referring to the red wave after the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats lost more than 60 seats in the House in the electoral wipeout at the time. It's where we start today with some of our favorite experts and friends. Publisher of The Bulwark, host of The Focus Group podcast, Sarah Longwell is here. Also joining us, MSNBC political analyst, host of The Bulwark podcast, Tim Miller is here. And democratic strategist and professor at Columbia University, MSNBC political analyst Basil Smikle is here. Basil, I'm going to start with you because I'm guessing you're the least surprised that Mitch McConnell doesn't give a you know what and thinks people will somehow get over. 16 million people in America are going to just, quote, get over not having health care suddenly. Your thoughts? Yeah, get over. I mean, I can't fathom how leaders in this country could be so well, maybe I can't fathom how leaders in this country could be so blind to what their constituents are are asking for. Medicaid is a means tested program, which means if you get it, you need it. And so, you know, for all of these people who would be so adversely affected, and you've heard about that being called, you've heard it being called out in these town halls. It's just unfathomable that there are leaders that would just literally turn a blind eye to it. I do a lot of work with young people. Medicaid impacts children as well. This isn't just, this isn't older adults who are expected to work as a part of the proposal in this sort of workfare type environment. This also affects young people, young people with disabilities, young people who rely on Medicaid to get mental health services, something that we've been talking so much about in the last few months and years. And just think about how those students who are growing up in an environment where mass shootings in school buildings are part of their daily lives, and they are now having to potentially have to deal with that without the support that Medicaid can provide to engage their mental illnesses that arise from this, or any kind of depression that may arise from this. So when you think about the kind of infrastructure that these programs fund and that voters rely upon to have daily services that in their normal lives they may not even think exist moment to moment, but absolutely rely on, the cutting of these programs, the withdrawal from that kind of support will have such a detrimental and far-reaching effect on the lives of Americans. I have no doubt that Republicans are going to be affected by this on election day in the next several years. Yeah, I mean, Sarah, there's no partisan difference in the households that benefit from Medicaid. 62% identify as Republican, 62% of self-identified Democratic households or voters have someone in their household who has been on Medicaid or benefited from Medicaid. There's no partisan difference in the recipient of health care. The difference is in the callousness and the way Mitch McConnell talks about people, quote, getting over, 16 million people in our country, according to the CBO, will lose access to health care through Medicaid. Mitch McConnell used to be the guy who cared about that. And Tom Tillis in this, and these are always tarantulas in a bowl, and then we're talking about Republican infighting, but Tom Tillis is the one who's correct on this. It'll be a devastating electorally. Yeah, look, this bill is already extremely unpopular. And I think that one of the only things that could make it even more unpopular is for Mitch McConnell to become one of its big champions, because voters hate Mitch McConnell, like Republican voters hate Mitch McConnell. And I listen to them in focus groups. Every time you bring up Mitch McConnell, you are met with complete and total derision. And one of the reasons that Donald Trump was able to sort of become politically popular in a party that had previously been Mitch McConnell's is that he made it clear that he was going to be a populist president who was going to sort of preserve a lot of these social programs. He was going to be a different type of Republican. Now, for a lot of traditional Republicans, that was a bad thing. But for a lot of voters, it remade the Republican coalition. And a lot of the voters who are now part of this magnified Trump coalition, they hate Mitch McConnell, and they like their social programs. And they thought that Donald Trump was going to keep a promise to them to not take those away and sort of, you know, as an offset to giving billionaires tax cuts, which has always kind of been the rap on Republicans. And so I think that this becoming kind of a Mitch McConnell kind of bill is going to make it even more unpopular with the exact voters that Republicans have been able to bring into their coalition. And I think that Tillis is absolutely right. It's a political both a nonstarter and then an eventual something that could be catastrophic for them. I mean, this bill, I hear about voters more, the longer it's out there, the more it's sort of being talked about, the more voters are learning about it, and the less they like it. Like, this is one of those things where the more they know about what's in it, the more they don't want it to pass. And so I don't think that Mitch McConnell's comments did anything to make it more popular. Let me, Sarah, I have some of the polling, but you tell me if you have more. Fox News, their poll showing support of the big, beautiful bill, 38 percent of their respondents support it, almost 60 percent oppose it. And then Fox News polls the big, beautiful bill among white, non-college men, and just 43 percent support it and 53 percent oppose it. I think Pew Research has some numbers out, 29 percent of adults favor the bill, while almost 50 oppose it. 21 percent say they weren't sure. But to your point, it's been out there long enough. And what's interesting is Elon Musk savaging Trump and the bill and blowing up his relationship with Trump over the bill also speaks to a different part of the Trump coalition, sort of that, I don't know what we're calling them anymore, the men in the manosphere. The wing of the party has also heard Elon Musk hate it so much that he blew up his relationship with Donald Trump over it. Yeah, well, this is the thing. The bill's in the sour spot with big parts of the MAGA coalition, right? So for the people for whom debt and government efficiency and the idea that it's going to add trillions and trillions of dollars to our national deficit, it is deeply unpopular with that part of the party. And then it's also very unpopular with sort of the Josh Hawley wing of the party, where they have a lot of voters who rely on these programs who know they're going to get cut. And for once, the Democrats' messaging is breaking through. And I'm listening to voters in the focus groups. They are saying back what Democrats are putting out there, which is they are cutting your programs, programs that benefit you, regular voter, in order to give tax cuts to very rich people. That stuff lands and it lands with a lot of these voters who are now part of this MAGA coalition. And I hear voters all the time talk about how angry they are about it. And so, yeah, I think that as this continues, it's going to get less popular, not more popular.