On last night's All In with Chris Hayes, Chris discussed with Joy Ann Reid the problem for the Republican National Convention: it's going to have Donald Trump and his supporters at its center.
The segment starts with Mitch McConnell's suggestion that to be a viable candidate for the general election, Donald Trump needs a strong message....and a teleprompter.
But there are other messages besides those that Donald Trump might read aloud from a podium. Skinheads and other racist organizations are backing Trump and promising to be in Cleveland to "defend Trump supporters." Many Republican lawmakers and downticket candidates have arranged to be elsewhere during the convention weekend. And corporations that normally fund the convention are backing out, fearing to be associated with the Trump campaign. Finally, Trump is even having a problem getting speakers for the convention.
Joy Reid contrasts the ever re-appearing "teleprompter Trump," whose message on trade might actually appeal to working class voters, with the skinhead racist fail that always accompanies the Trump voter. It's a problem for the Republican Party:
REID: It is his strongest argument: that people who have been hurt by trade might be tempted by Donald Trump's message of throwing up barriers and going after China. But the problem is people who are not already hard core Republicans who are receptive to that message, see the skinheads who are showing up...see Mike Tyson, who would rather get a tattoo on his face than necessarily to stand next to Donald Trump in Cleveland. The trade message may be okay, but he's still Donald Trump.
But the real problem for the Republicans, of course, is that Donald Trump lets the Republican Party's inside voice be the outside voice. You are more than welcome as a racist in the GOP, just don't bring that dish to the general election, because if you do we lose. Trump doesn't care. So Mitch McConnell prescribes a teleprompter that will not have the racist stuff on it, so Trump can be "on message" and be a "viable" candidate.
There has been for the past fifty years, since Goldwater's loss, really, a moat between the racist Republican primary season and the general election where candidates put on their country club clothes and pretended to be civil. Trump has dropped the drawbridge and let the barbarians into the castle.