NBC News anchors Chuck Todd and Willie Geist on Sunday suggested that voters could send President Donald Trump a message at the upcoming midterm elections over Saturday's mass murder at a Pittsburgh synagogue, package bombs sent to prominent Democrats, and Trump's "tone."
"We have a problem," Todd told Geist. "And we have a president who doesn't seem to believe he has a role to play in dealing with it. And I think that is what is making this more of [an] uncomfortable situation in our politics."
Geist noted to Todd that there's "no sign" that Trump will "change his approach to politics. The no-holds-barred-going-out-and-having-his-rally-anyway yesterday in Illinois and doing what he does."
Trump at his Saturday rally condemned the mass murder of 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, calling it an "evil, anti-Semitic attack" and that such killers should “pay the ultimate price.”
Geist asked Todd, "Is this gonna get better? If so, how?"
Todd didn't sound so optimistic.
"I don't think it gets better," he replied. "I think it gets worse because at the end of the day the president ... sets the tone of politics. He sets the rules of how you conduct politics, whether anybody likes it or not. He's the head of our government, and he is the head of our political world right now, and so he’s setting the rules. And just like there's the rule in physics — every action gets an equal and opposite reaction — and so how he conducts himself is going to trickle down. And so until he changes his ways or sets a different tone, the tone isn't going to change."
Todd then invoked the midterm elections.
"So the question's going to be, 'Do elections matter?' Right? Does the election have an impact on this?" Todd continued. "And I think the question that I have — and I'm sure others do — is what role does this last 72 hours play in the minds of some undecided voters that are sittin' out there and vacillating here? Do they want to send a message ...? I can tell you this: Politically every time the president has had one of these moments where he sort of mishandled it post-Charlottesville — things like that — he's had a dip in the polls. I will tell you, this is a bad nine days for the Republicans to have the president in this kind of pickle."
Geist added a thinly veiled message to those who will be casting ballots Nov. 6.
"Yeah. Midterms, nine days out," Geist said. "Americans say they're fed up with this kind of politics. We'll see if they mean it when they go out and vote."
(H/T: NewsBusters)
