Joe SLAMS Trump for mocking affordability and 'endless' wars

We start with three stories that have one thread. We've got a country that can't stop fighting, got a country that can't afford to eat, and we've got a president that can't stop talking about people's weight. Let's start with a war. Actually, two wars. Russia's grinding fight in Ukraine continues to squeeze fertilizer and energy markets, and it's been doing that for years. That means higher prices for you. The president could help end the Ukraine war. In fact, he could have done it his first day in office, but he won't. Refuses to push Vladimir Putin, and you and your family pay for it in their pocketbooks. Try explaining that to our democratic allies across Europe. Try explaining that to working Americans that can't even afford a hamburger anymore. And the Iran war. It keeps grinding on and on and on. A war of choice. And as it grinds on, Americans' approval of it collapses by the day. So, Friday night, at an event that should have never been held, the president tells the room of reporters not to believe, quote, fake news about how that war is going. Well, that fake news actually comes from calls inside the house, from the administration, from people who know it was a mistake to go in, and there's no good way to get out. So, you be the judge of that. But you don't have to judge. Higher costs. Affordability. The president mocking affordability. Like, with your grocery bill, food prices are now rising at their sharpest pace in 50 years. You can read that in the Associated Press. You can read that in a variety of news reports this weekend. But you don't have to. All you have to do is look at your bill. Food at home costs up 33 percent since 2019, against just 6.4 percent growth in the seven years before that. And ground beef is now $6.82 a pound, up 79 percent. Gas prices, they just keep spiraling up. The price of oil, spiraling up. And war, it drives up fuel and fertilizer prices. And those prices drive up food. And it is food that's eating more of your paycheck than at any time since Gerald Ford was president of the United States. So, against this backdrop, how did the president spend that same Friday night? Not reassuring Americans on the war. Not reassuring Americans on the cost of beef, or on the cost of gas. No, he spent an hour on the physical appearance of the press corps in front of him. Even telling CNN's Caitlin Collins on camera that she's attractive, but never smiles, and seemed to compare her to a trans influencer. He also joked that guests would rather die than look 20 pounds heavier wearing a bulletproof vest. And then he staged a bit attacking J.D. Pritzker as a fat pig, while later pretending to defend him. So, I guess when the war is endless, and Americans can't afford groceries, make this story about a reporter's smile instead. I guess that's easier than governing and actually admitting the cost of living in America is way too high. Something he still hasn't done. John Meacham, this is about as tone deaf, not only of a speech, it was tone deaf actually for the White House Correspondents Association to actually hold that speech. I hope they'll reconsider that in the future, while the president's going out subpoenaing members of the New York Times for doing their job. But the speech was so tone deaf, and yet Republicans, there will not be a Goldwater moment. They do not have the courage to send somebody over and talk to the president and say enough is enough. Start governing. Start governing not only overseas, but right here at home where Americans can't afford food, they can't afford groceries, they can't afford rent. Yeah, I mean, so many Republicans, as we've talked about, sold their soul to Trump and the check bounced, right? I mean, they rode this particular vehicle to power. They live in absolute fear of being primaried. I used to resist using that as a verb, but now that it's so central to our political life, we should. One of the things that is the governing factor in American politics, always there, but rarely so prevalent, is the fear of a single person. And I think the president revels in that. Certainly that performance Friday night was that of a reveler, someone who enjoys inflicting pain, I think is the best way to put it. And we'll see if there's an electoral check. I mean, because of the gerrymandering, because there are so few swing seats, I'm a skeptic on this blue wave that's coming, just because there are so few places for the wave to form and crash, to torture that metaphor a bit. But you mentioned Goldwater, the Goldwater moment, the summer of 74. I don't think there is going to be that because the party structure is just so different. In those days, there was a party structure that was separate from the president himself. This is a cult of personality. And those who have decided to rise with it may have to fall with it. And that's the question, John Hammond, before we get to Iran. How do Republicans, as we are in 99 days to the midterms, sort of navigate this, is it fair to say, unpopular president or at least issues that he's terribly unpopular on as they get ready to run? I think it's fair to say unpopular. And it's fair to say there are a lot of particular issues that are super problematic for Republicans. And we have some reporting on this today that I think we're going to get into, which is that, you know, what would have been unthinkable in the past two years, the past year and a half since Trump 2.0 started, but would have been totally thinkable in any past administration would have come potentially even earlier. We're now seeing signs that the White House itself recognizes that the only course for Republicans who are in tough districts need to need to need to run away, read to run away from the president. And that's and that's what is the heart of some of Vaughn Hilliard's reporting. We'll talk to Vaughn about that right now. But that's the answer, because I think that the only thing left for a lot of Republicans to do is to try in the months remaining to start putting themselves, getting some distance between themselves and the president. And they're now, according to Vaughn's reporting, which we can talk about right now, Vaughn, they're now being given sanction to do that. As I said, you know, for the last 15, 16 months, you would have never imagined that that was possible. But reality is finally starting to dawn, even at the White House, about how much of an albatross the president is around Republican candidates next. Right. I appreciate that, John, along with our colleague over the White House, Jake Traylor. We just put up a new report here this morning that, frankly, after covering Trump for 10 plus years in the Republican Party, that is saddled up to everything that Donald Trump says and desires from them, them going along with. This is a weird moment where Jake and I talked to an array of sources close to Trump world and the national GOP. As 99 Days Out, it figures out where it's going. And I want to be very clear. This is a moment for the first time that I've seen in the last 10 years where those around Donald Trump are very implicitly giving Senate and House candidates on the GOP side room to distance themselves from Donald Trump. And as one GOP strategist told me that they feel like they can, for example, Tom Barrett, congressman in Michigan, whose district is literally being visited today by Donald Trump. He voted just last week on that War Powers resolution to rein in the president's ability to conduct this offensive campaign in Iran. But people aren't turning in these members to Donald Trump. Donald Trump's top associates, they're not sitting around the Oval Office and saying, hey, this is what this member, Republican member said. They're falling out of line. Go send out a true social lashing out at them. That's not what is happening at this time. This is a moment where effectively Donald Trump is mostly isolated and the Senate and House candidates are able to separate themselves. And when it comes to the Iran war, we were told by multiple sources at the highest levels that Donald Trump effectively his messaging around the economy and the Iran war. It doesn't need to be echoed by a down ballot candidates because they understand that it's not a winning message and that instead that they should follow a playbook that has been laid out for them, focusing on things like the increase of child care tax credits, tax cuts, assault. And yet the president of the United States isn't even following the own playbook that the national folks around him have set up for them in order to maintain control in the Senate. And it's quite damning to watch 99 days out the president of the United States, the head of the party, essentially being separated from what the rest of his team and candidates on his side of the aisle are trying to do in order to actually pull off wins.