Filling in for Andrea Mitchell during MSNBC’s 12 p.m. ET hour on Thursday, anchor Kasie Hunt noted that Vice President Mike Pence had just arrived in Texas to tour storm damage and meet with victims of Hurricane Harvey, claiming he was taking “a different tack than the President took when he visited the region on Monday.”
Turning to Obama Communications Director and top Hillary Clinton aide Jennifer Palmieri, Hunt asked: “Is he just trying to make up for a mistake that the President made in your view?” Predictably, Palmieri jumped at the chance to criticize the President: “...the White House staff themselves said it’s important for the VP to go down and to talk specifically to victims. And that probably is something that would have been better, obviously, for the President to do.”
The Democratic partisan also voiced her hope that the hurricane’s aftermath would derail Trump’s agenda:
And it’s gonna impact a lot of issues. Like we see the DACA decision possibly being delayed, which I think would be a good thing because you might not want to rescind protection for Dreamers while Dreamers in Texas are underwater in Houston. So I think the White House will find that this is going to not just be a big issue for them to deal with the clean up, but also impact other political issues they have to deal with.
Moments later, Hunt reiterated “that the Vice President was the one stepping out in front of the administration’s response to this disaster.” She pressed political analyst Elise Jordan: “...what’s your view of what this means, the context of Vice President Mike Pence kind of taking the mantle here for the administration?”
Jordan pushed back on the biased discussion: “I think that it is much easier to advance and execute a high-level dignitary visit when there are a few more days of planning. I think that the criticism of President Trump initially not going, you know, immediately to the eye of the storm, I think it’s pretty unfair.”
On Wednesday, the cast of Morning Joe savaged Trump for his Tuesday visit to Texas, saying there was “something wrong with him” and accusing him of not being “human and empathetic.”
The discussion led by Hunt on Thursday was brought to viewers by American Express, Office Depot, and Liberty Mutual.
Here is a transcript of the August 31 segment:
12:52 PM ET
KASIE HUNT: And Vice President Mike Pence just landed in Corpus Christi. He’s gonna be meeting with storm victims. President Trump expected to head back to the Gulf Coast on Saturday. Joining me now, MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan, a former White House aide in the George W. Bush administration, and Jennifer Palmieri, former communications director to President Obama. And we still of course have retired Admiral Thad Allen, the former Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard here with us.
For all of you, Jen, I want to talk to you first about Mike Pence and his visit here, the meeting with victims. This is a different tact than the President took when he visited the region on Monday. Is he just trying to make up for a mistake that the President made in your view?
JENNIFER PALMIERI: I think that it was pretty telling that the White House staff themselves, not even the Vice President’s staff, but the White House staff themselves said it’s important for the VP to go down and to talk specifically to victims. And that probably is something that would have been better, obviously, for the President to do. I imagine even if Trump had done it, Pence would be doing it today, too.
The magnitude of this storm. You know, I worked in White Houses when you had to deal with things like this, nothing the magnitude of Houston, but they’re going to be dealing with this for years, not just months, but years. And Admiral Allen can certainly speak to that with his experience with the BP spill.
And it’s gonna impact a lot of issues. Like we see the DACA decision possibly being delayed, which I think would be a good thing because you might not want to rescind protection for Dreamers while Dreamers in Texas are underwater in Houston. So I think the White House will find that this is going to not just be a big issue for them to deal with the clean up, but also impact other political issues they have to deal with.
HUNT: Yeah, certainly there is a sense that it may impact how congress operates here in the first month of September as they try to get aid down to these victims. I want to show you a little bit of – this was former Texas Governor, now Energy Secretary, Rick Perry spoke to reporters on the plane, on Air Force Two, coming down to Corpus Christi. He was asked a little bit about what it meant that the Vice President was the one stepping out in front of the administration’s response to this disaster. Take a look at his answer to those questions.
RICK PERRY: The President went to the right place. He literally and figuratively waved the flag. The American citizens and Texans know he cares, he’s paying attention.
HUNT: Elise Jordan, what’s your view of what this means, the context of Vice President Mike Pence kind of taking the mantle here for the administration?
ELISE JORDAN: Well, I think that this is also not in the very early hours of the tragedy. And I think that it is much easier to advance and execute a high-level dignitary visit when there are a few more days of planning. I think that the criticism of President Trump initially not going, you know, immediately to the eye of the storm, I think it’s pretty unfair. And I think that it’s important to take a step back and just, you know, think about the resources that are required for one of these visits, and you know, what – the decision-making process that involved.
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