Transcript: Trump Says Quiet Part Out Loud About Law Firm Shakedown

Tomasky: Well, this has manifested itself in many other ways, but as the sound at the first clip that you played [indicates], he just doesn’t believe there are any restraints on him. There’s just no restraints whatsoever. It starts with people who aren’t citizens—and as I said, I don’t think the polls are going to turn violently against him if that’s who he’s going after. But that’s where it starts in the second month of his presidency. Who knows about the second year?

Sargent: Indeed. And I think, by the way, that we shouldn’t necessarily write off the possibility that voters will care about this kind of thing. I want to read a quote from James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff for Political and Legislative Affairs. He says Democrats are “running angry and riled up,” and that this can be a challenge politically at the ballot box, meaning in the midterms. Mike, we keep hearing from certain Democratic consultants and data analysts—you know who I’m talking about—that Dems can’t spend too much time defending our institutions because voters don’t care about that sort of thing. Allowing that maybe the particular word “institutions” is maybe not politically potent, it seems clear that this lawlessness, deportations without due process of people who have a soccer tattoo that can be relabeled a gang tattoo as they did, has got the Democratic base very angry and agitated. How should Dems try to harness that, do you think?

Tomasky: Are low-information swing voters going to get worked up about this sort of thing? Probably not. Probably not. So if you think that the only thing that Democrats have to do is persuade low-information swing voters to turn against Trump and turn toward them, then yeah, it’s a waste of time to defend institutions and talk about things like that. However, I would say while that is a very important thing that Democrats need to do, and probably on balance the most important thing, there are other important things. Showing your base that you have a pulse; showing your base that you hear them; and just standing up for history’s sake, for certain principles and notions and ideals.