MS NOW’s Chris Hayes and Nicolle Wallace slammed Donald Trump after his address to the nation on Wednesday about the ongoing war against Iran, with the “Deadline: White House” host labeling the speech a “massive political failure.”
Trump “sounded and looked quite old, quite low energy, quite exhausted and not particularly focused,” Hayes said after the president’s remarks, in which Trump said the military operation was “nearing completion.”
The president had failed to justify the conflict to the American people, Wallace said, but instead proved “that this is a war of his choosing.”
She drew a stark contrast between the tone struck by Trump and that of other wartime presidents. “If you back up to how and why a president addresses the nation at a time of war, it is traditionally out of a grave and solemn sense of duty to the families who have lost loved ones, and there are 13 families who have lost loved ones,” she told Hayes.
Unlike his predecessors, the president was “driven to action and to public performance by something in the political arena, not the more grave or solemn responsibilities of the office he holds,” the “Deadline: White House” host said.
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Wallace also slammed Trump for downplaying the economic impact of his war in Iran, which has sent gas prices surging across the country.
“Every single person, regardless of their political party and regardless of how they feel about any other geopolitical issue, knows how much gas costs and is pissed off about it,” she said. “He’s telling you not to believe the thing that you can see every time you drive by the gas station: the price for gas.”
Wallace said the president “could have simply stayed in the lane of his solemn duty of paying tribute to the brilliant men and women of the military,” but instead he attempted to “gaslight people — no pun intended — about their paying for gas.”
In the end, she said that for Trump, “who has sort of outfoxed people politically for nine years now,” the speech was a “massive political failure.”
You can watch the full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”