Ex-RNC Chair Michael Steele Delivers Stark Warning Over Trump Loyalists
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Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee, has a blunt message for anyone hoping to see improvements within the party in the age of Donald Trump and his “MAGA grifters.”
“If you’re waiting for it to get better, it’s not going to happen,” he said while filling in as host of MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes.”
“The problem is that Trump’s movement within the party is rotten to the core,” he said.
He pointed to the lengths people on the right have gone to court Trump loyalists, such as a new admission from Fox News that the network allowed people it knew to be dangerous liars on the air in order to continue to keep Trump supporters tuned in.
He noted that the Trump wing of the party has embraced Jan. 6 rioters as well as characters such as “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, who last week went on a racist tirade urging white people to “get the hell away from Black people,” and Kyle Rittenhouse, the shooter acquitted of murder charges after he killed two unarmed racial justice protesters in 2020.
“A rational Republican party would not prop these folks up as heroes,” he said. “But the MAGA Republicans have sold their souls to Trump’s brand of culture-war politics ― and for the RNC, guys like Scott Adams are just another way to fundraise off of grift and grievance.”
He urged the party to throw out the “MAGA grifters,” but didn’t seem optimistic that it would happen.
See his full monologue below:
