Mika Brzezinski wants desperately to use positive reinforcment for Republican politicians regarding their response to Trump's attack on the Constitution -- but as you might guess, there is no "there" there.
And John Heilemann was having none of it.
"Yeah. I mean, yes, you can play that game all day long. The Republican party is without -- I think they're very consistent, to your point. They're very consistent over the last six years. They have, you know -- there was nothing Donald Trump could do that would cause them to abandon him, and the only thing that I thought might move them is when they would start to play a political price. Now they're paying a political price, and they still won't abandon him."
He went on to dismiss most of the comments.
"I didn't see any courage in most of those statements. Mitt Romney has been where Mitt Romney is. They all never say the word Donald Trump. 'I can't imagine a president would do this.' You don't have to imagine it. Here, let me do a printout."
"Why are they afraid to say his name?" Mika said.
"They are afraid of the base. They are afraid of the Republican voters, they're afraid of the Republican voters. They're not afraid of Trump. They are afraid of the voters who worship Trump. They're not wrong to be afraid of the voters in the sense if they turn against Trump, they believe those voters will turn against them," Heilemann said.
"A position of courage? No. Is it a position they should take, no. That's what they have shown for six years. They are afraid that Donald Trump will turn to his voters and say 'primary that man, end his political career,' and apparently that means more to them than the Constitution, the sacrosanct nature of the U.S. Capitol, anything that you can lay out, principles, governance, violence, all that goes to the side. They're afraid if they say something bad about Donald Trump, they'll get primaried.
"I think that's pathetic. It's a sad state of affairs that you're worried so much about what is basically a pretty crappy job anyway. Who wants to be a congressman> Most people, you can find 50 things to do that would make you more money and have more influence in the world. The job is horrible."
"The Constitution..."
"They don't care about that."
"Didn't you see a slight move in the right direction?" Mika asked.
"No, I saw all of them avoiding ever saying Donald Trump's name. Putting out statements that say 'No one should terminate the Constitution. The Constitution will never be terminated.' As Ted Cruz put it so courageously, 'The Constitution will endure for millennia.' How that represents a tiny step toward having courage, I don't know.
"He could look at that in front of Donald Trump and say, 'What did I say, I didn't say a word about you, sir. The Constitution is enduring and will endure for millennia.'
"They're just as pathetic as they ever were. Mitt Romney is where he's always been, and Ben Sasse found his courage on the way out the door. The rest of them even aren't mentioning Donald Trump's name. So until someone has the courage to mention his name in an official statement, I will withhold any statement that there's been any progress whatsoever. There's been none."
Ahem. Personally, I think Heilemann himself is ducking the real problem -- which is, Republicans are also physically afraid of Republican voters. These people are violent, and they have guns.
And to do anything about that problem would require them to do something about guns. So you see their dilemma.
