NYT’s Peter Baker: ‘It Wasn’t Brad Parscale Who Decided to Reopen the Country’

The New York Times’ Peter Baker offered a dim view of the Trump campaign’s decision to demote campaign manager Brad Parscale on Thursday. Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Baker explained that President Donald Trump was ultimately in charge of the campaign.

Co-host Willie Geist asked Baker if it even matters who the campaign manager is when Trump and Jared Kushner are running things.

“Look, every campaign that’s in trouble looks to shake things up, they look for new energy, they look for new ideas, vision, but you’re right the President is the one running this campaign. He’s the one calling the shots,” Baker said.

“It wasn’t Brad Parscale who decided to reopen the country before, obviously, things were ready. It wasn’t Brad Parscale who has chosen to, you know, narrow cast with the message in favor of Confederate flags and statues. These are choices the President has made.”

“These are choices the President is going to have to live with or he’s going to have to make a strategic decision to shift if he wants to shake things up. Personnel only matters so far if the person at the top is the one driving the message and the message isn’t working, so far the message is not working.”

The AP’s Jonathan Lemire was equally unimpressed with the personnel change.

“The only thing that can silence the President’s Twitter account is another hack like yesterday,” Lemire said.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.