There are few things CNN and MSNBC like more than a noted Republican willing to go on air and bash President Donald Trump — as seen with Anna Navarro — and GOP strategist Rick Wilson has more than been up to the task since Trump has taken office.
So much so that MSNBC was forced to mute Wilson, a ranking member of the Never Trump movement, for seven seconds on Monday after he launched into an expletive-filled rant about President Trump and Republican voters who support him.
Wilson, who shares Navarro’s Florida base, has parlayed his Never Trump stance into a lucrative media gig. He appeared on “Morning Joe” to plug his new book and that is when John Heilemann engaged in a petty attack on the size of Trump’s hand, which is featured on the book’s cover.
“Look at that little itty bitty hand,” Heilemann said. “They’re just a little sausage — cocktail sausage fingers there.”
“You are like one of the avatars of never-Trump Republicanism” he then told Wilson. “How do you explain what has happened to your party with respect to this fellow?”
Wilson said that Republicans love that with Trump, “they’re finally given permission to say the ugly things they kind of wanted in their secret hearts for a long time.”
He went on to say there is “a huge courage deficit in this country” because people on the right are not willing to criticize Trump, but was suddenly muted — Wilson’s lips and hand gestures making it clear that he was still talking.
After the delay, co-host Mika Brzezinski is heard asking Wilson: “Are you saying that on TV?”
“I wasn’t trying to,” he answered.
“These guys call us and they express this unbelievable, this disgust with Trump,” Wilson added. “They’re not all bought into this.”
An ecstatic Heilemann looked on with full satisfaction over Wilson’s performance.
Proud of his anti-Trump harangue (and eager to sell books), Wilson shared on social media later what he said MSNBC muted.
“I said ‘Washington is full of profiles in chickensh*t. You and I both get calls from members of Congress who say I can’t stand this *sshole,’” he tweeted.
I said "Washington is full of profiles in chickenshit. You and I both get calls from members of Congress who say I can't stand this asshole"
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 6, 2018
And therein lies the problem with the remnants of the Never Trump movement, the principle-based movement to oppose Donald Trump has become personal. And ugly.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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