Following President Trump’s unusual move on Tuesday to televise most of a bipartisan meeting on immigration, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger seemed to credit Trump gossip book author Michael Wolff for Trump’s bipartisan behavior during the meeting.
Moments after the tape of the meeting ended, both Borger and colleague Dana Bash credited the President for making this move that CNN chyron writers deemed an “extraordinary look inside Trump’s bipartisan meeting.”
The panel first invoked Wolff when Borger noticed that “the right-wing...is already starting to attack the President on this and this is a President who I think is pointedly behaving not as Michael Wolff will have him not portrayed in his book, but is somebody who is sitting around the table and is in charge here.”
Bloomberg’s Shannon Pettypiece echoed that sentiment, chalking it up to “the political realities kick[ing] in” with Ann Coulter blasting the meeting as having done “more damage to [Trump] than anything in the Mike Wolff book because, in the Trump grassroots base, they want nothing more than the wall in the Trump base.”
A few moments later, Borger equated Tuesday’s meeting to an episode of a Trump reality show in which “everybody decided they were going to play.” However, she then invoked the portrait of Trump portrayed by Wolff as having affected the proceedings:
[A]nd what we heard from the President today multiple times is I'll be signing it. Whatever you bring to me, I have a lot of confidence of the people in the room....be signing it. I'll be signing it and we don't know what that it is, but we know now this is a President who has been burned terrifically by the Michael Wolff book. This is a President who knows, and John points out, what his approval ratings are, and he wants a win.
So, if Trump was mentally ill, how would he be able to react to a book like Wolff’s and make a conscious decision to show competency and leadership? You can’t have it both ways, liberal media!
Here’s the relevant transcript from CNN’s Wolf on January 9:
CNN’s Wolf
January 9, 2018
1:46 p.m. Eastern
GLORIA BORGER: Can we take a step back first of all and remark upon what we just watched? I mean, this was not just cameras in the courtroom. This was cameras in the jury room during the deliberations. I have covered Washington for a very long time and I have not seen anything like this and I think the President deserves credit for this because what we got to watch was people actually and I turned to Dana at one point and said is this real? And you said yeah, I think this is a real.
DANA BASH: It’s real. It’s not —
BORGER: We are not used to watching this. This was Lindsey Graham saying to the President in no uncertain terms, you need to close the deal. The President saying a pathway to citizenship was “an incentive,” saying that he’ll take the heat on whatever Congress gives to him. Now, the right-wing, as John was pointing out while we were listening to this, is already starting to attack the President on this and this is a President who I think is pointedly behaving not as Michael Wolff will have him not portrayed in his book, but is somebody who is sitting around the table —
BASH: Exactly.
BORGER: — and is in charge here, but so, yes, the details have yet to be worked out obviously and Congressman McCarthy tried to lay it out for the President. You know, you do DACA and then you do border security and then you do chain migration, but I think this was kind of stunning. I had not seen anything like this ever.
(....)
SHANNON PETTYPIECE: And now the political realities kick in because I've already seen my Twitter feeds, you know, Trump’s base, his supporters, Ann Coulter already attacking this. Ann Coulter tweeted something about how this did more damage to him than anything in the Mike Wolff book because, in the Trump grassroots base, they want nothing more than the wall in the Trump base. Wall is priority number one. They want the wall and he’s tried to tiptoe away from it before and he got hammered on the right and there’s no Steve Bannon in the White House to check him on this.
(....)
BORGER: And what the President wanted to show today and, honestly, this was his reality show today, and everybody decided they were going to play. They were going to be a part of it. As long as cameras were there, they would tell them what they were thinking really about it and what we heard from the President today multiple times is I'll be signing it. Whatever you bring to me, I have a lot of confidence of the people in the room.
BASH: But he has to build it, so it comes.
BORGER: Right.
BASH: It can’t be, if you build it, I will come.
BORGER: Exactly, but I'll be signing it. I'll be signing it. I'll be signing it and we don't know what that it is, but we know now this is a President who has been burned terrifically by the Michael Wolff book. This is a President who knows, and John points out, what his approval ratings are, and he wants a win. He wants one win and, by the way, by the following afternoon, I'll get another win.
