A central battle of Trump-era politics played out under the radar on “Morning Joe” this Thursday. The two sides are coastal elite critics of Trump and red state Democrats trying to win elections in Trump’s America.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski asked Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to react to Rudy Giuliani’s comments this week about Stormy Daniels. McCaskill, who’s battling for re-election in a state President Trump won by almost 20 points, resisted.
“Well, I think we have to stay focused on the bigger picture here,” answered McCaskill, skirting the matter of Giuliani’s specific remarks and launching into a broader point about Trump’s legal troubles.
When she had the floor again, Brzezinski insisted she was “not getting distracted. I’m focused on how women are treated by this White House … I think it has been the most damaging thing I’ve seen in decades.”
McCaskill jumped back into the discussion, staying on-message as she showed off the Democratic Party’s increasingly apparent strategy of hammering away on healthcare this summer. It’s a strategy Democratic incumbents in Trump-friendly states know they need to master, hoping to undermine their opponents’ inevitable efforts to cast them as rabid resistors who take their cues from the anti-Trump media, more focused on Russia and porn stars than the policies that impact their constituents.
Here’s the first part of McCaskill’s answer:
Brzezinski still wasn’t convinced, seeming to argue the administration’s unorthodox conduct should matter as much as other issues for how severe its impact is on governmental norms.
“I will push back again, though, and say the constant lying on the part of this president and his stooges, the undermining of the pillars of our democracy on a daily basis, the undermining of the attorney general on a daily basis, the bullying and the devaluing of people based on their race or their gender… I don’t know how you get anything done in this atmosphere,” the host said. “How you can operate in this atmosphere? Whether you’re a Democrat — you, Claire McCaskill — or anybody in the Republican Party who is too afraid to step up. How does anything actually move forward for this country, for the people of your state, in an atmosphere like this which is breaking down the foundations that we were built on, that this country is supported by?”
In her reply, McCaskill agreed “we have to hope that our foundations withstand this onslaught,” but expressed frustration that work she considers more pertinent has been overshadowed by other stories. “Those things are not getting out to the public because we are so fixated on the drama coming out of the Oval Office,” complained McCaskill.
The pair’s polite back-and-forth perfectly reflected a major divide among Trump’s rivals and critics. The coastal anti-Trump coalition focuses on Trump’s character, and thus on the palace intrigue in which it manifests. That focus generates frustration outside the Acela Corridor, even among Democrats.
The press has to make choices on which of the million stories coming out of the White House it will cover, and how much weight it will give each story. That question is at the heart of the divide between Brzezinski and McCaskill.
If Brzezinski believes that “operat[ing]” in this atmosphere is nearly impossible, maybe it’s because press coverage focuses heavily on every development in, for instance, the porn star saga. Trump’s personal life matters, but is it more important to voters than what’s happening in Congress or the Pentagon or any cabinet agency on a given day?
