Trump Team Infighting and the Risk of a Democratic Wave

So you might think of this show as caszh, uh, or you might think of it as just

disorganized. Uh, maybe the word loosey-goosey sometimes

comes to mind.

I was gonna just go right into the guests and the elements, because we have

incredible stuff tonight, just so interesting.

But I wanna talk about one thing first, and then we'll bring them in.

I struggle sometimes with, uh, how much to do what, uh, some people call

inside baseball on this program and on the morning meeting,

'cause some of you

live for that stuff. I really don't care much about it.

But, uh, what I do like is storytelling, and I like stories with great characters.

And, um, there's two stories a- brewing, uh, that,

uh, have great characters and, and, and they're about the,

the, the House of Trump.

So I'm gonna tell you what one of them is, and then we're gonna save one of them

for the guests. And I'm not gonna go into great detail,

uh, but I just want you to

hear about it first here,

because, uh, I've talked a little bit about it, but,

but I'm being

flooded b- by sources. I'm not, I'm not...

I don't have time to report this story actively. But here's, here's what it is.

A- as you all know, there's a possibility it'll be a tsun-

a bl- a blue tsunami as

big as Connecticut, possible. And, um, and, and, and

today, um, so we... A, a long period where I told you about

that as a

possibility. Then I've told you for about 10 days, "No,

uh, some of the

Republican races are getting better." Well, some of them

are getting worse again,

and this is the, this is the inside baseball soap opera-y stuff.

The knives are out, ladies and gentlemen, for the Trump political team.

Uh, uh, there, there are... People are starting to share with me just epic

stories. I don't know if they're true, but if true, epic stories.

If they're not true, they're epic stories, they're just not true epic stories,

about, uh, accusations of all sorts of things,

primarily,

primarily under the heading of incompetence.

And, uh, uh, I wrote this, uh, the other day.

Uh, there's no more hostile relationship

besides, uh,

tenant-landlord, uh, than between Republican consultants.

Republican consultants are, are frigging assassins.

And when things go bad in campaigns, they will accuse each other of,

of the most heinous acts, uh, of stealing, lying,

bribery, uh, extortion. Uh, these are... I'm not being hyperbole.

Those are things I've heard Republican consultants, uh, accuse each other of.

And it, and it... When things are going well,

everybody's just making a lot of

money and everybody's good. But, but I- I'm warning you that the third

beat after a blue tsunami, besides the election results and Trump's

reaction to it,

it could well be just

like Justice Department referral type accusations, as well

as

just ex- just, uh, uh, fiction-worthy, uh,

HBO, uh, Succession-worthy accusations about pr-

This would be the heading, "Professional malpractice."

Accusations of professional malpractice, uh, on behalf of the President of the

United States, and, and, and which these consultants will say, uh,

contributed mightily to the, to the blue tsunami, if it

happens. Um, I have more to say about it, but I'm gonna bring our guests in and

start going through stuff. 'Cause as I said,

I know some of you don't care about

that stuff, and, and, and I get it. I get it.

Uh, but, uh, but the other thing for you to know is,

um,

uh, today The Wall Street Journal reported

that the Justice Department is

investigating Corey Lewandowski.

Uh, and, um, there's a, there's a, a group of people

inside the government and outside the government who

are part of Team Trump,

uh, but they are, they are... The, the, again, the level of vitriol

between them. Uh, there are people who, who are every bit as close to the

President as Corey is, and for those of you who don't know,

Corey ran the first

presidential, who would like to see Corey in prison.

Truly.

Like, uh, it's not just a metaphorical thing.

They'd like to see him in prison.

Uh, and then, and then, uh,

uh, there's this fight. Uh, some of these things have been public,

right?

The Rick Grinnell thing with, uh, with, uh, what's her name?

The former US attorney. No, what's that lady's name?

Just blanking on her name. Anyway, my point is, in addition to the

consultant accusations, uh, that are looming, uh, for the political

team, there's some s- there's some tough internecine stuff

that's already

started to bubble up, including, uh, this thing about Corey Lewandowski.

Because who, who wants... If you're a Trump...

I'll just tell you this.

If you're a Trump associate,

okay? And, and, and, and, and you've been at times extremely close

to the President

and, and your, your, your place in the world r- you know,

is derivative of the

President,

imagine reading on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that the President's

Justice Department is investigating you for, uh,

potential criminal activity.

And, um, one of the bylines on the story, we flag this for you all the time, is

Josh Dawsey. If I were gonna be in... If I...

If The Journal was gonna report that I, I, I'm being investigated by the Justice

Department, I would, I would say...

If somebody said, "There's a story in The Journal," I'd say,

"Is Josh Dawsey's

byline on the story?" Because I would say the odds of eventually being indicted

if Josh's byline's on the story are significantly higher.

Anyway, I wish them all the best, but this is, this is ugly stuff,

ugly stuff, uh, coming if there's a tsunami. All right.

Alina Habba, thank you very much. You can now listen to full episodes of The

Morning Meeting and Two-Way Tonight on Apple, Spotify, or wherever

you get your podcasts