Stephanie Ruhle and MSNBC Panel Hit Trump Over ‘Scripted’ Call to Troops: ‘Didn’t Seem… Very Authentic’

Stephanie Ruhle and MSNBC Panel Hit Trump Over ‘Scripted’ Call to Troops: ‘Didn’t Seem…Very Authentic’ (Mediaite)

President Donald Trump took time, earlier on this holiday morning, to give thanks to the troops in a video conference call. It was a nice gesture, without question, and Stephanie Ruhle and her MSNBC guests Thursday said as much. But they also took exception to a few things about the call.

For starters, panelist Robert Traynham — a former staffer to GOP Sen. Rick Santorum — noted the fact that Trump was reading prepared remarks, rather than speaking from the hear.

“Maybe I’m overreading this, but it didn’t seem to be very authentic,” Traynham said. “He seemed to be heavily scripted…I’m used to a president looking into the camera and thanking the men and women…talking about them and not about me — meaning the president. Talking about them and what they’re doing, and not about, to use his words, ‘a beautiful tax cut.’ It was a little bit disjointed.”