Former GOP chairman Michael Steele characterized supporters of President Trump as “pathetic” and “sycophants” during a panel discussion on MSNBC over the weekend.
Jonathan Capehart, the fill-in host of Saturday’s AM Joy, first showed a clip of American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp in which CNN’s Alisyn Camerota cut off his defense of the president amid impeachment and pushed back on his claims. He then asked Steele, now a political analyst for MSNBC and a Trump critic, if he is surprised that conservatives are sticking by the president.
“Are you surprised, given all your years in the Republican Party and all the values and things that it stood for and stands for in your mind, that these people are siding, despite all the facts that we know that have been released by the president, that they’re still sticking by him?” Jonathan Capehart asked.
“Not only surprised but highly disappointed,” Steel answered. “It is embarrassing how pathetic these sycophants have become, how desperate they are for one man, one man, to like them, to not tweet about them, to say something good about them, to endorse them.”
He added, “It is embarrassingly pathetic for a party that has a rich and long tradition for standing with the rule of law, standing against our enemies, foreign and domestic, so that would include Russia and the KKK.”
Steele, 61, served as the Republican National Committee chairman for two years, from January of 2009 to January of 2011. He joined the network shortly after his tenure as chairman ended.
