Rubio's press briefing on Iran sparks 2028 chatter

[0:00] Joining us, MSNOW political analyst and host of the Fast Politics podcast, Molly Jongfast, [0:04] former Ohio governor and MSNOW political analyst, John Kasich, and New York Times opinion columnist, [0:10] David French. We also want to talk about Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance here and the politics [0:14] of the presidential politics between them. But let's start with Iran. [0:19] David, the president is constantly taking questions on Iran, and he's almost never saying [0:27] anything of real substance, or at least never anything that seems like it's directly tied [0:31] to what's happening in Iran. A lot of it does seem timed or intended to manipulate the markets, [0:40] and he talked about the markets just then. Oh, I don't think there's much question at all. [0:44] The guy is trying to manipulate the markets throughout this war. He keeps announcing good [0:48] news on the eve that the markets, you know, the eve of the markets opening. Bad news is reserved [0:54] for different times. I mean, it's very obvious in this Trump second term about the only thing that [0:59] actually checks Trump, about the only thing sort of internally in the United States that he actually [1:04] pays attention to is the status of the market. And he's constantly trying to goose the market to be [1:10] better and more favorable to him. But in the meantime, on the war itself, he's flailing. He's [1:15] announcing contradictory goals. He's announcing victory and then not victory, then victory again. [1:21] It's very obvious that he had one mindset going into this. And that was, this is Venezuela part [1:26] two. That's what this is, Venezuela part two. And when it turned out not to be, as it was never going [1:33] to be, he hasn't had a plan B. He hasn't thought this all the way through. And there we, here we are, [1:39] we're just flailing from idea to idea, from proposal to proposal. And nobody really knows the true [1:45] status of the war. Molly? I think, look, I'm Jewish, but I'm going to tell you, when you're fighting [1:52] with the first American pope, the one who speaks English, the one from Chicago who has huge favor [1:58] abilities. And by the way, this fight is about nuclear weapons, like the church is against nukes. [2:04] And supposedly Donald Trump is saying he's trying to get the nukes away from the Iranians. So the fact [2:09] that he's even fallen into this fight is bizarre. I think you're losing. I think this is not a fight he [2:15] wants to pick. And I don't, he seems very, he's having a lot of trouble focusing on the problem [2:20] at hand. And the problem at hand is why he got elected, which is making things cheaper and [2:24] affordability. Well, let's, let's talk about the pope first, not the pope, but Marco Rubio is going [2:29] to visit the pope. He said this meeting was scheduled before Donald Trump started fighting with him. [2:35] But it does show us that Marco Rubio has been the, the person the administration seems to be putting [2:44] out there whenever they need to smooth something over. Or at least that's, that's the message that, [2:48] that we're getting. Yesterday at the, at the White House briefing room, Governor, Marco Rubio came out [2:53] and talked to reporters who probably felt like it was nice not to be attacked for a couple minutes [2:59] by somebody from this administration. And he gave a more coherent justification and explanation for [3:07] this war than we normally get out of the administration. There is still all sorts of holes to it, [3:11] but he did message better on it than anybody else had. And he did so with a level of [3:17] charm, I guess, that we don't normally see. The bar is obviously very low, but it has sparked real [3:26] conversation out there about what this means for 2028. J.D. Vance had always been the presumed successor, [3:35] the presumed inheritor of the MAGA movement. He's been trying to court it. [3:39] But now there's a lot of talk out there about Marco Rubio. You ran against him in 2016. So I [3:46] wanted you here to talk, talk about it. Do you see him as a viable candidate, a viable inheritor of [3:52] the MAGA movement? Well, look, first of all, during those debates, I was the one person that said we [3:59] shouldn't tear up the agreement with Iran, but that we needed to go back and patch it up in the areas [4:04] where it was weak. And one was the whole regime of inspections that needed to be fixed. And secondly, [4:10] the idea that we needed to limit their ability to arm these different groups around the world that [4:16] were carrying their water. Now we've gone through this war and it appears as though what's going to [4:21] happen is that there will be a negotiation going forward about what to do with nuclear weapons. [4:28] It's kind of interesting. Isn't it a flashback, Katie, in a funny sort of way? So they wanted [4:33] to tear it up because they didn't like it. And now we might be in a process where we actually didn't [4:38] deal with the nuclear issue, but we're going to continue to negotiate. And at the same time, [4:43] we've kind of repelled our allies, including the leader of Poland, which is a very serious issue [4:47] because the Poles really get to understand what happens if the Russians are right on their [4:54] doorstep. In terms of Rubio, look, I think he's the sunny guy. But if you take Rubio and you take [5:01] Cruz, it's not Cruz, but you take Vance, both of them were basically 180 degrees away from Donald [5:08] Trump. Rubio was in favor of immigration reform. Then he walked away from it. Vance said at one point [5:16] he didn't want anything to do with Trump. So it gets to be about, well, who are these guys? And what [5:21] is the definition of character in regard to those guys? But they're going to be viable. But let me [5:26] ask you a couple others. How about Don Jr.? Is he maybe going to run? Ted Cruz, he's going to Iowa, [5:32] not because he likes the corn in Iowa. He's going there because he's trying to set the stage. And then [5:37] I've got another one for you to think about. What if Thomas Massey actually wins this primary down [5:42] there in Kentucky? Could he turn around and say he wants to run for president? What we do know [5:47] about 2028 is we don't know any more than we knew that DeSantis was going to be president [5:54] or Mike Pence. We don't even see him anymore. So it's too early, but it's speculation and it's fun. [6:01] And that's why we do television. Right, Katie? Speculation. Yeah, of course. But it's also, [6:06] we're trying to understand the mega movement and where it's going and who is going to take charge of [6:12] it and where that person might lead it. And the idea that Vance no longer has control of it, [6:17] I think, is really telling because it helps us or it raises the question about who, [6:21] what the mega movement is right now. Because, I mean, you know this, Vance has gone out there and [6:28] he's been America first. He lashed himself to Donald Trump after calling him America's heroine [6:34] only a few years ago. But he really tried to carve a lane for himself on being pro-America and only [6:43] America. And he has had to twist himself into pretzels in this administration with Donald Trump's [6:50] foreign, quote unquote, excursions. And it's really coming back to bite him. [6:55] I think a more talented politician could probably do a little better. Look, he's a Peter Thiel guy and [7:01] Peter Thiel has not had the greatest. I mean, remember Blake Masters in Arizona? He has not [7:07] done a great job of picking. And what you see, I mean, look. I already said Blake Masters and I [7:11] thought, who? I don't. Exactly. But remember, he ran for Senate. It was a wildly expensive Arizona [7:16] campaign. And he's just not. I just think J.D. Vance is not a great politician, which it's a real [7:23] skill being a politician. And look, there's a lot of hypocrisy in this administration. But [7:27] like you're watching Marco Rubio be able to spin it to a certain extent. And I just think Vance [7:32] barely got elected in Ohio. They had to pour money into that race. And I think it's I think [7:37] it's he's just not a natural. So do you think if the MAGA movement and Sarah Longwell had a great [7:43] piece, a focus group where a lot of voters, David, were talking about how they thought Vance was just [7:49] not authentic any longer? They just didn't know who he was. He wasn't principled. But they really liked [7:54] Marco Rubio. They were really impressed by his performances in front of cameras and his ability [8:00] to speak to voters. They felt like they understood him as a principled person. We can talk about whether [8:05] that's real in a moment. But does that say to you that MAGA voters are now, after 10, 11 years of [8:15] Trump and the craziness of it, maybe they're looking for something more akin to normal? [8:21] Well, I mean, I think, look, one one thing we just have to acknowledge is that we've had [8:26] weeks and weeks and weeks of two men, J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio, kind of auditioning in front of [8:32] the public. And we're relearning why for years and years leading up to 2016. A lot of people thought [8:38] Marco Rubio was a uniquely talented politician. I mean, people compared him to a young Ronald Reagan [8:43] years and years ago. And then when he collapsed in the 2016 presidential campaign, [8:49] people just wrote him off. But he's still a talented guy. He's a talented politician, [8:55] especially if you're going to do the day to day contrast with J.D. Vance. But I have a bit of a [9:01] different theory here. And that is, I don't think if the present trends continue where this [9:07] administration is lurching down to the mid and now low 30 percent approval rating in some polls, [9:14] I'm not convinced that the heir to the GOP crown isn't necessarily going to come out of this [9:21] administration. You know, you had an unpopular administration when George W. Bush finished [9:26] and the next Republican nominee was one of Bush's primary critics years earlier in John McCain. [9:33] So it's going to be very interesting to see if there's going to be a glow, [9:37] sort of a halo effect of being a part of this administration, or there's going to be the [9:40] opposite, that after if there's a big midterm loss, if Trump continues to struggle, [9:45] are Republican voters going to do yet another pivot? Because we've seen the party change before. [9:50] There's nothing to say it won't change again. [9:52] So, Governor, do you have an idea of what that, if there is a pivot, what it would look like, [9:56] given what voters are saying right now about this administration? Again, [10:00] there are some, you know, hardcore Republicans who are still on board, [10:04] but independents' biggest voting bloc in this country, not on board. Democrats obviously not [10:09] on board. And a meaningful amount of Republicans in this day and age say that Donald Trump is just [10:14] not focused on them, not doing a good job on the economy, on immigration, on anything, really. [10:20] Well, again, it is about affordability. You mentioned it out early on, Katie. And the fact [10:26] is, is that people today are feeling as though they're not being listened to. We had about 24 percent [10:33] turnout in our primary here yesterday, and somebody was bemoaning it. I said, well, I don't, [10:37] people don't really want to go out and vote because meet the new boss is the same as the old boss. So [10:42] it is very possible, to David's point, that somebody may come out of this thing that's not [10:48] tied to the administration. And we're going to have to see. We have a long way to go. We're not [10:52] even through the midterms. And the midterms will reveal some other things. One other comment, [10:56] because you brought up the issue of Rubio and the Pope. One of the frustrations I think Donald Trump [11:01] has is he doesn't understand he's, he's fighting a man whose spirituality runs, runs his life. And [11:07] it's easy to fight with a politician back and forth. But when you're right running against somebody who [11:12] is really kind of above all that, and you are spiritually driven, it's very difficult to land [11:18] a punch. And we've seen it. And we've seen the Pope handle himself very well. I wish Rubio good luck [11:24] over there. And he's got a big job to do.