CNN’s Joan Walsh: It’s ‘Horrifying’ That Trump Trusts Ann Coulter and Limbaugh More Than Jim Mattis
Thursday was just an absolutely insane news day that featured a potential government shutdown, plunging stocks, acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker rejecting an ethics official’s advice to recuse himself from the Mueller probe and, oh yeah, the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in protest of the president’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria.
The Mattis announcement, specifically, created a whole lot of turmoil and unease in Washington as the retired general was considered one of the few “grown-ups” in the Trump administration. During a CNN debate on the issue, political commentator Joan Walsh expressed extreme concern over Mattis quitting, especially as the president appears to be relying heavily on the advice and direction of right-wing entertainers.
Appearing on Erin Burnett OutFront alongside pro-Trump pundit Stephen Moore, Walsh was asked to give her thoughts on the Mattis resignation and the fact that Republicans on the Hill are saying the “wheels are coming off the bus.”
“I think today is a horrifying day, Erin, but I think it’s a necessary and clarifying day as we learned today that the President of the United States cares more about the policy wisdom of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter than he does about a dedicated — the opinion of a dedicated patriot like General Mattis,” Walsh declared. “That is horrifying.”
Coulter has spent the past couple of days unloading on Trump for waffling on his commitment to the border wall, saying he may not finish out his term and describing him as “gutless” for briefly backing a compromise spending bill that would not include wall funding. Limbaugh told his radio audience on Thursday that Trump promised him that he would not sign a continuing resolution that didn’t have an allocation of $5 billion for the wall.
“He’s flip-flopped about whether he needs the $5 billion and whether he would sign the continuing resolution without it,” Walsh noted. “And when he got walloped by Fox News and by Rush and by Ann — who are grifters, who have been grifters off the conservative movement for years — he gets walloped by them and he turns tail and caves.”
She continued, “General Mattis comes in and says, please, sir, reconsider or we’re hearing reporting, please reconsider this Syria move that you have taken without consultation with me, your generals, or your allies, and the man walks out and resigns so that’s what we have. Rush and Ann, they’re riding high, and people like General Mattis are on their way out the door.”
The rest of the segment would essentially be a shoutfest between Moore and Walsh, with the liberal commentator calling out the informal Trump adviser for bragging about a strong economy while the stock market is in freefall.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
