Chastised by former GOP chairman Michael Steele for her haughty, condescending attitude towards "low[est] common denominator" middle-class Republican voters who are at the very least giving Donald Trump a fair hearing, Salon editor-at-large Joan Walsh shot back, "I'm much more one of them than he is," adding, "I wasn't born to wealth, for God's sake, Michael Steele!"
Here's the relevant transcript (emphasis mine):
MSNBC
Hardball
July 30, 2015CHRIS MATTHEWS, after montage of focus-group participants asked about Trump: Wow, Joan Walsh. Your reaction. The woman especially grabbed me. Because they, I don't want to get too sexual or gendered here but the kind of guy he is. Something about him they liked. You know what I mean.
JOAN WALSH: Yeah. I guess I do. It's really hard for me. I mean, I look at those people and I feel sad. That is really such a low common denominator. They're all Republicans --
[MATTHEWS lets out a weezy laugh]
WALSH: --they're not all going to vote for him. They're not all going to vote for him, but they all seem to see this wishful thinking that--
MATTHEWS: Low common denominator. What did you mean by that?
MICHAEL STEELE: Geez.
MATTHEWS: What did you mean by low common denominator?
WALSH: They're really, they really don't have a firm grasp on reality, on, what it's going to take to solve the country's problems.
STEELE: Oh my God!
WALSH: They don't, I'm sorry. We're all going to sit here. We're all supposed to--
MATTHEWS: He's going to get this tape. He's going to grab up tape, he's going to say that's the elite media looking down at the lowest common denominator.
STEELE: Exactly. You want to know why--
WALSH: I'm fine with, you know what, guys? I'm fine with that.
MATTHEWS: You're fine with it too, I'm fine with it, and you said it but--
STEELE: No, I'm not fine with it. I'm going to tell you why. Because, you want to know why Trump is doing what Trump is doing and the way he's doing it? It's because of comments like that. Because of attitudes like that.
WALSH, dismissively: Oh, sure!
STEELE: Your high brow is looking down on my low brow. You are somehow better than me.
WALSH: No, I don't think I'm better than them! No, I don't! But they're not thinking. They want to be entertained.
STEELE: But, whether you said it or not, your comments relate that way and that's the problem. And so, when people hear that, whether it's from the media or Republicans in the party, they go, this guy, as the woman said, "he's speaking to me. I may not agree with everything he's saying, but he's one of us. He's a billionaire, but he's one of us."
Your comment, Joan, does not come off as, you're one of us. And as long as they hear that, they're not going to blame him.
WALSH: I'm so much more one of them than he is. I was not born to wealth, for God's sake, Michael Steele.
MATTHEWS: Keep up that, Joan. I think you're right. It's fascinating.
