Joe: Obama’s Weakness Giving Trump the ‘Perfect Platform’

[RUSH TRANSCRIPT]

SCARBOROUGH: “There’s the Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio battle. Ted Cruz has won that battle. He’s exploded and Marco is flat. And then there’s Donald Trump, 20 points ahead. A lot to choose from there. Tell us what strikes you in this poll.”
TODD: “I think it’s Trump’s strength. I mean, I think, after Paris — and I think he’s going to get stronger, after — after San Bernardino. I think that many people are going to look at it, that  he’s being exploited. But in situations like this, the way he’s been talking, the tough talking, that he’s been doing, he’s basically using the same messaging but now about Muslims and terrorism. National security — when you talk him about foreign policy and what to do in the Middle East, he’s not that strong but he has turned all these issues into domestic security. This is where I think you’re right, Joe. I think that this is, I think there’s plenty of voters gravitating toward him because he’s willing to say what others won’t be saying.”
SCARBOROUGH: “When bombs are going off in Paris, Chuck, and Paris is looking like Beirut, in the early 1980s. And suburban neighborhoods in California are looking like Baghdad in 2005/2006 They don’t want to hear somebody saying ‘we’re not sure,’ ‘we don’t know how to win’. ‘Syria is difficult and tough.’ They want to hear what Ronald Reagan said in 1979 and 1980 when asked what are you going to do about the hostage crisis? What are you going to do about the Soviet Union? We’re going to win. And of course, it’s simple minded. I’m not comparing Donald Trump to Ronald Reagan, my republican friends. It’s all, Chuck, about contrast. And Barack Obama is giving Donald Trump and Ted Cruz a perfect platform to do exactly what they’re doing, whether it’s offensive to Americans or not.”
TODD: “I have a close friend who never in their entire adult life thought about purchasing a gun. And over the last couple of weeks [indecipherable] about purchasing a gun, for the first time in their life. There is insecurity put there. The combination of all of these events. The mass shootings in general, the fear of terrorism, thanks to Paris, and thanks to San Bernardino. There is this feeling of insecurity in the American public.”
SCARBOROUGH: “And I want to go to —“
TODD: “We rely on a president to help us get through those times. Whether that’s fair or not, it’s part of the job. And I think that the White House needs to be aware that this is a time of insecurity out there. And if they don’t fill the vacuum, somebody else is going to.”