Rachel Maddow Calls Out Republican Fake Shock Over Trump Congratulating Kim Jong-un

Rachel Maddow pointed out that Republicans are making many of the mistakes that they made in 2016, and wasn’t buying their claims of surprise over Trump congratulating Kim Jong-un.

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Maddow said:

Barring Kim Jong-un like stepping down and apologizing. That might be the only thing you would congratulate him for. Otherwise, do not congratulate. Standing order when it comes to the dictator of North Korea. But there is Trump. Warmly congratulating Kim Jong-un and misspelling it in the meantime. And you know, in a normal political world somewhere between you deciding to congratulate the North Korean dictator and you misspelling that congratulations, somewhere between there, the idea of you as presidential material would like shred itself and blow away on the median of a ten-lane highway. But instead, he’s still the front runner of the Republican Party’s nominating contest for 2024. Do not congratulate.

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And all the other candidates in that race, and there are many of them now, they’re all struggling with what to do even with something that bad. With something that obviously wrong. Even with this guy issuing warm congratulations to the North Korean dictator. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, for example, he was asked about this and he managed to say that he was, quote, surprised to see that congratulations from former president Trump for the dictator of North Korea. He said he was surprised. Surprised, really? I mean, Trump expressing warm misspelled congratulations to the North Korean dictator is a lot of things, but is it surprising, really? You really didn’t see that coming? You didn’t see that exact thing from him before?

Maddow’s broader point was that Republicans are repeating all of the same mistakes that handed Trump the party’s nomination in 2016. The Republican Party is so afraid to challenge and call Trump out that they pretend to feign surprise when he buddies up with the dictator in North Korea.

The more things change. The more they stay the same.

Republicans are still terrified of Donald Trump.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association