When a Republican strategist tried to defend her party by saying the GOP hasn’t completely sold its soul to Donald Trump, MSNBC’s Joy Reid shut her down.
During a discussion on Saturday, GOP strategist Noelle Nikpour slammed Rep. Justin Amash for leaving the Republican Party.
Nikpour said Amash abandoned the party, when he could have just disowned Trump while remaining in the GOP.
“He said he was quitting the GOP. He didn’t say he was quitting Donald Trump,” Nikpour said. “He could have said, maybe, I’m quitting team Trump. … the Republican party platform is not Donald Trump. ”
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Reid was quick to shut down that nonsense, saying, “Yes, it is. It is Donald Trump. It is 100% Donald Trump. It’s whatever he wants, he does it.”
Video:
GOP strategist tries to tell #amjoy that the Republican Party is not the party of Donald Trump. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/KP9S4xoJIm
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) July 6, 2019
The exchange:
NIKPOUR: He said he was quitting the GOP. He didn’t say he was quitting Donald Trump. He could have said, maybe, I’m quitting team Trump. I don’t agree with that. He said he’s quitting the GOP.
REID: Hold on a second. Donald Trump is the GOP. Donald Trump is the head of the Republican party. He’s running — all of the policies that Donald Trump is putting in place, your party 100% is standing behind him on, whether it’s the children in cages which violates all kinds of laws and maybe the Geneva convention. They’re behind him on tariffs, which are destroying people’s farms and ranches, destroying their lives. They’re behind him on everything he does even if he’s saying I’m going to ignore the Supreme Court. If no one has quit over that, Charlottesville, nothing else, does the guy get credit for saying he has some principle? At some point, he says enough.
NIKPOUR: He totally gets credit for being his own man and standing up for things that he doesn’t believe in or agree with, but to quit the party. The party is not the — the Republican party platform is not Donald Trump. It’s a platform —
REID: But it is. Yes, it is. It is Donald Trump. It is 100% Donald Trump. It’s whatever he wants, he does it. Whatever Donald Trump wants, that’s the platform.
The GOP is the Trump Party
There seem to be three types of Republicans that exist in the Donald Trump era of American politics:
1. Those who have fully embraced Donald Trump, who make up the bulk of the modern party.
2. Those have completely denounced Donald Trump and the GOP for appeasing him (folks like Charlie Sykes, Rick Wilson and now, Rep. Justin Amash).
3. Republicans like Noelle Nikpour who twist themselves into a pretzel by arguing that Trump and the Republican Party are two separate entities.
The truth is clear, and it has been for more than two years: The GOP is Donald Trump and Donald Trump is the GOP. There is no separation between the two.
Through all of his incoherent and embarrassing tweets, scandals, corruption and incompetence, Republicans have stood by this president. They have refused to put country over party.
To be a Republican in this era of politics means you have to own what the GOP has become. So they should either own it, or stop being a Republican altogether.
Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
