Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow reacted to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) decision to endorse Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for president.
Graham was a one-time fierce opponent of Cruz, having disparaged him as both a senator and a presidential candidate.
Maddow described Graham’s endorsement an other efforts like that to oppose Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump as “frantic and strange” and she compared that to the battle being waged on the Democratic side between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Transcript as follows:
The Republican effort to somehow keep their presidential nomination away from Donald Trump is getting both frantic and strange.
The Democratic effort to pick a presidential nominee is neither frantic nor all that strange, but it does seem to be at a critical turning point. The major super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton has now announced they will stop running ads in support of Secretary Clinton`s primary contests against Bernie Sanders. They will leave the primary field and instead start focusing on the general election and what they are apparently expecting to be a fight between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump this fall.
Also, “The New York Times” and “Washington Post” reported today on remarks that President Obama made in Texas recently to Democratic donors behind closed door. There`s no direct quotes in either story but “The Times” headlined their story as President Obama basically making a case that Democrats should start to unit behind one of the two candidates for the Democratic nomination and that candidate should be Hillary Clinton.
Now, the Bernie Sanders campaign obviously doesn`t agree with that. They also say that they`re about to start winning lots and lots and lots of states. They acknowledge they did poorly in the five contests this week, but they say they`re about to start winning and they say senator Sanders, not Hillary Clinton will ultimately get the Democratic nomination.
The Sanders` campaign is now swimming against a tide of common wisdom that`s against them on that subject, which I`m sure they don`t mind. But if this reporting about the president`s comments is right, then they might also find themselves up against the force of this White House and a president who is both a friend of Senator Bernie Sanders and someone who has an 87 percent approval rating right now with Democrats.
With all this going on right now, I`m fairly desperate to talk to Senator Bernie Sanders about this moment in his political career and in our country.
(h/t RCP Video)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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