MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace: Trump ‘Hard-Wired to Never Believe a Victim of Sexual Assault’
RUSH EXCERPT:
WALLACE: "Any consternation about Donald Trump attacking Christine blasey Ford last night in such a crude manner?"
BAKER: "Oh, plenty of consternation, not just from those three senators but even on fox and friends, the president’s favorite show they said that he thought — they thought that was a mistake. Senator Lindsey Graham, no stronger supporter than Lindsey Graham. He wished the president would knock it off. This is exactly why the Republican senators and advisers of the president told him not to do exactly this. They didn’t want him to inflame the situation. It was okay to blame Democrats for politically exploiting the situation. Okay to defend Judge Kavanaugh as a man of integrity, but was not supposed to be a direct attack on his accuser Dr. Christine blasey Ford, especially since it was the president himself who just last week said she was a very credible witness. Something happened, obviously, at that rally W the crowd. He got cheers. He got a lot of applause. And it became, you know, went back to his first instinct. They’re always to attack back."
WALLACE: "Frank Figliuzzi, I think there’s another way of looking at Donald Trump. He’s hard wired to never believe a victim of sexual assault. He’s hard — his hard wiring has been on display through the Roy Moore allegations, through his own more than a dozen people who have accused him of misconduct. So his hard wiring simply showed its ugly head last night. How does that impact the men and women of the FBI who are trying to present a background check with integrity. When the person atop the chain of command of the federal government is lambasting the alleged victim’s credibility and account?"
FIGLIYZZI: "So, Nicolle, what I’m hearing and sensing is increasing frustration within the ranks of the bureau as to what they’re being permitted to do and not do. You mentioned an investigation with integrity. An investigation that is dictated to you by a politician is not necessarily an investigation with integrity. I’m not even holding out hope for that at this point. But let me engage in a bit of predictive analysis. Here’s how I read the president’s attack last night coupled with the great confidence of Republican Senate leadership saying they’re going to vote on Friday. This is how this works, in my experience with reopening of an investigation based on derogatory information. Your client is the White House. I have received derogatory information before. Like this. You are feeding your client in realtime the results of your interviews. So what I am surmising here is that the president has, in realtime, the interview results. This has emboldened him last night to change his tune to start attacking Dr. Ford based on what he’s hearing in his briefings on the results. And he’s passing that on to the Senate who similarly is feeling emboldened to say, we’re going to do this. We’re going to do it on Friday. I am — I hope I’m wrong, but I fear I’m not."
