'Who decided this was a good idea?' REACTION to Trump's midterm pitch focusing on REFLECTING POOL

[0:00] Joining us, MSNOW's senior Washington reporter and co-host of The Weeknd, Eugene Daniels, [0:04] managing editor of The Bulwark at MSNOW, contributor Sam Stein, and anchor of The Washington Post's [0:10] early brief newsletter, Dan Marica. [0:12] Eugene, what's he doing there? [0:13] Who's he talking to? [0:14] What's he talking about? [0:15] I think a lot of this and a lot of the behavior that we see from Donald Trump, when you talk [0:19] to his allies and folks in the White House and administration, they will tell you it's [0:22] about him. [0:23] Like, a lot of resources and, like, manpower and womanpower have gone to making sure that [0:28] the president is feeling good about this, managing his mood. [0:31] And, you know, what did you say, 28 hours before we actually start getting results about how [0:35] people voted in this midterms? [0:37] The president is in front of the reflecting pool, which is a reminder to voters that he [0:40] wasn't paying attention to the things that mattered to them. [0:43] Well, who decided this was a good idea? [0:44] So here's who's there. [0:45] This is according to Selena Kuznikov. [0:48] Employees from the National Park Service, including the acting director, Jessica Boran. [0:53] She's sitting in the office, in the audience, excuse me. [0:56] The audience is small, just two rows of chairs. [1:01] NPS employees are seated on the right side and two rows of people are sitting on the left [1:06] side. [1:06] There's a protester outside of the Lincoln Memorial screaming F.U. [1:10] into a bullhorn as well. [1:14] Can you bring me inside the way? [1:15] Who's making this decision? [1:17] What's he doing here? [1:18] These are the things that he's making, right? [1:20] When you talk to him and there's like some of the aides that folks know, people probably [1:26] like Stephen Chong, who's very close to the president. [1:29] Obviously, Susie Wiles is still his chief of staff and, you know, a lot of things have [1:32] to go through her. [1:33] But what has been very clear is that he's calling more of the shots than even when he [1:37] was in that first term. [1:38] He's making more of the decisions and everyone else around him has to kind of figure out [1:41] how to make sure that the thing happens, even if it politically looks very confusing, [1:47] I think, to voters who are probably walking by cameras, whether they're on TVs and seeing [1:52] the president talking about something in front of the reflecting board. [1:55] That's if they're walking by TVs and listening to this. [1:57] I mean, Sam, he's been around the country in the past few days. [2:00] Lots of these competitive races in places like Kansas and Texas and South Carolina, Iowa. [2:08] It is befuddling to try to understand what he's doing here to end this and why he thinks [2:16] people, one, are listening and two, if they were listening, that they would be caring about [2:20] this right now. [2:23] I mean, yes, it is befuddling if you live in, you know, prior realities. [2:28] But in this current one that we are in, it actually makes a lot of sense to me, right? [2:33] It is kind of a microcosm of the past two years. [2:37] He's obsessed with the beautification of Washington, D.C. [2:41] It's one of the few things that he believes he's made tangible progress on. [2:45] Also, if you noticed, one of the first things he said was just a flat out lie that it was [2:50] vandals that ruined the reflecting pool. [2:54] There's been plenty of investigations and reports produced. [2:58] It was not vandals. [2:59] It was a poor installation job by his people who did it. [3:04] And so that itself is a microcosm, right? [3:06] It's casting blame for his own failures on nefarious actors that don't exist. [3:11] And then I think also the fact that it's a reflecting pool is really a pretty illustrative [3:16] too, which is he's about himself. [3:18] He's looking to the reflection. [3:22] He's made the election about himself. [3:23] He's told Republicans to vote as if he were on the ballot. [3:26] But really, his primary motivation is his legacy and himself and that he's ending here in front [3:33] of a sparse crowd pointing to a pool that he ruined and then claims he fixed really does [3:40] say a lot about the state of his presidency. [3:44] Fifty nine percent of Americans say Trump is focusing too much on the D.C. [3:49] building projects on his pet projects. [3:52] Dan, fifty nine percent when we compare that to the poll numbers that show Democrats leading [4:00] everywhere. [4:01] Yeah. [4:01] Are you surprised? [4:03] No. [4:04] I mean, I've talked to a lot of voters over the course of this year, and I can tell you one [4:06] issue that has not come up is something I want to see more of is the beautification of [4:10] Washington, D.C. [4:12] I mean, most of these people who I've spoken with, Republicans and Democrats, are plainly just [4:16] worried about their ability to pay for things. [4:18] I mean, whether it's gas, whether it's things at the grocery store, that is what is consuming [4:22] voters right now. [4:23] It's shown, obviously, in the polls, but there's also anecdotal evidence of this. [4:27] Go out and talk to voters. [4:29] And that is what you hear. [4:30] There are deep concerns about their bottom line. [4:33] You know, I think Democrats are going into Election Day, especially Democratic voters, [4:36] filled with a lot of hope. [4:38] But there's also this deep anxiety that I've picked up from Democratic voters. [4:42] They are well aware that polls show Democrats are likely to have a good night tomorrow. [4:48] But they've also felt that way in 2016, when Donald Trump ran the first time, in 2024, when [4:53] he ran against Kamala Harris. [4:55] And so in speaking with voters, I think the word I've heard the most is actually dread, [4:59] that they are hopeful, but they are filled with dread, that, yes, these polls are showing [5:03] that Democrats could have a good night, but they are not willing to believe them until [5:08] they actually see the results. [5:09] And that's why I think there's kind of this anxiety that Democrats are feeling right now. [5:14] Yes, Donald Trump is closing his campaign, you know, with a speech at the Reflecting [5:18] Pool about the beautification of D.C., but until the results come in, I don't think you're [5:22] going to see a lot of Democrats celebrating the fact that that is kind of the way he's closing [5:27] his message. [5:28] We are 10 minutes in. [5:29] He is still talking about the Reflecting Pool. [5:31] Let me put up these two numbers side by side. [5:34] First, I'll show you Donald Trump's approval rating in the key states, the key red states, [5:39] and it barely scratches 40 percent. [5:42] Texas is at 41. [5:44] Kansas is at 40. [5:47] Iowa, 40. [5:48] Alaska, 40. [5:48] Ohio, 38. [5:51] Maybe we're not showing it because the president's speaking. [5:53] We don't want to cover him. [5:54] Oh, there it is. [5:55] Great. [5:56] Now show, if you don't mind, control room. [5:58] The 50 plus one Senate races and the holistic snapshot of where it appears Democrats are. [6:08] Michigan, plus five. [6:09] Texas, plus four. [6:11] Maine, plus five. [6:12] Ohio, plus three. [6:14] Kansas, plus three. [6:16] Alaska, plus two. [6:18] Iowa, just barely point three. [6:22] Sam, again, I'm going to ask you the same question I asked Dan, which is when you take [6:26] these numbers, Donald Trump's approval and the Democratic leads in all these places, and [6:32] as we watch him continue to talk about the reflecting pool, I mean, Democrats are nervous. [6:38] Should they be so nervous? [6:40] No, I mean, that's part of their DNA to be nervous, right? [6:44] And it's like, you know, it's impossible for them not to be. [6:47] So I get it. [6:49] They've certainly had recent history, which would lead them to not believe a single bit [6:53] of polling data whatsoever. [6:55] But frankly, if you just look empirically at everything we've seen from early voting [7:01] trends to the polling data to the fundraising numbers to the ways that super PACs are spending [7:07] their money to where Trump's going, minus this jaunt to the reflecting pool, everything [7:13] points to things being firmly in the Democratic Party's favor right now. [7:19] And, you know, it's just the sentiment of voters and the motivation of voters. [7:22] There's a, you know, there's a number in that New York Times-Siena poll that really stood [7:26] out, which had nothing to do with any individual race. [7:30] It was about consumer sentiment around the economy. [7:33] And I think something like 53% of those polled said that the economy was poor. [7:37] And they said that's the worst number since July 2022. [7:41] I looked up what the inflation rate was in July 2022. [7:44] It was right between 9.1% and 8.6%. [7:47] It was the peak of Biden inflation. [7:50] If voters feel like that right now, I mean, that is that's death for Republicans. [7:55] So, yeah, Democrats are going to be nervous. [7:56] That's how they live. [7:58] But every bit of data suggests they'll have a big night tomorrow. [8:01] I want to take a break from him talking about the reflecting pool for just a moment and get [8:07] him talking about all of his rich friends at his Mar-a-Lago Halloween party. [8:12] Let's play it. [8:13] My rich members, they spent all day getting ready. [8:19] And these guys, these are the big quiet for a second. [8:22] These are the biggest guys on Wall Street. [8:25] And they spent all day long getting ready. [8:27] I only had 10 minutes. [8:28] I just put on a red tie. [8:31] All right. [8:31] So we only had 10 minutes. [8:32] He just put on a red tie. [8:34] But look at all of his rich friends, all of his rich members. [8:37] I mean, he has these parties at Mar-a-Lago at just the most inopportune time. [8:43] There was the Great Gatsby party at the end of last year. [8:47] And this was as the Senate and Congress was refusing to extend the Obamacare subsidies, [8:54] as Americans were finding out that their health care premiums were doubling, tripling, [9:00] quadrupling in some cases. [9:01] Many people were forced to just forego having health insurance because they were getting [9:07] so costly to prohibitively expensive. [9:10] Donald Trump is having a Great Gatsby party at Mar-a-Lago. [9:14] Eugene, he's now having a rich friends Halloween party two days before midterm. [9:22] As Americans are telling him, they don't feel good about the economy. [9:26] In fact, they feel bad about it. [9:28] How much more out of touch could you possibly be? [9:32] You can't. [9:33] This is as bad as it gets, I think. [9:35] And I was talking to a Republican just yesterday about this exact same thing, and they said [9:40] they were disturbed by this, that they were—and this is not someone who's usually easily [9:44] disturbed, but they were disturbed by the idea that the president of the United States [9:48] continues to make it harder for Republicans to do their job, continues to make it harder [9:52] for the strategists, the operators, the advocates, and the activists to actually do their job [9:57] and try to make sure Republicans keep the House and the Senate in just a couple of days. [10:01] And I think the thing that has been so fascinating is that while Democrats are always very nervous, [10:06] like everyone's been saying, Republicans are also very nervous. [10:09] And I think that is the difference when I'm trying to figure out and glean, like, how real [10:14] is the wave, how real is the trickle or the tsunami. [10:17] It's that Republicans themselves are nervous. [10:18] They're spending money in places they shouldn't be spending money in. [10:21] They're taking money out of places they should be spending money in. [10:24] And they are talking as if they have moved on from the idea, especially in the House, [10:28] that they're going to keep it. [10:29] And it is largely going to be because of Donald Trump, who doesn't seem to care about the success [10:35] of the Republican Party in any way, shape, or form. [10:36] He just wants to be seen as a leader of it. [10:38] He's talking about algae right now. [10:39] Dan, is it... [10:40] Hey, it's Rachel. [10:41] I am so glad to see you at the end of that clip because this is where I get to tell you [10:44] about a new way to watch all our clips and all of our shows and everything on MSNOW on your phone [10:51] or your tablet or your laptop. [10:53] You can watch things live or recorded. [10:55] Plus, you can ask me and all the other hosts and reporters questions in our weekly live chats. 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