MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace claimed on Monday’s broadcast of “Deadline” that President-elect Donald Trump did not understand the power of the federal government even though he won a mandate in the presidential election.

Wallace said, “It requires us to pull another layer off the onion. I mean, Trump won the popular vote. Trump has a mandate to do whatever he wants. Trump just has to be one inch shy of his worst impulses and he soars into Washington, really, with the mandate.”

She continued, “I mean, I think it reveals a deeper phenomenon, I think, that one, he still doesn’t really understand power in Washington to turn to this weak leader tool. That’s what the recess appointment is.”

Wallace added, “Again, and I’ve worked for people who’ve had to use it, but only when their approval ratings were at the low point of Bush’s presidency, it was after reelection, he was the lame duck and he was struggling to get his appointees through, that’s when he used it. Again, President Obama at a point where he couldn’t — he couldn’t get people through any other way. I mean, it is not a tool used in a position of strength.”

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