The Rachel Maddow Show WEEKNIGHTS 9PM ETMorning Joe WEEKDAYS 6AM ETDeadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace Weekdays 4PM ETThe Beat with Ari Melber Weeknights 6PM ETThe Weeknight Weeknights 7PM ETAll in with Chris Hayes TUESDAY-FRIDAY 8PM ETThe Briefing with Jen Psaki TUESDAYS – FRIDAYS 9PM ETThe Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnel Weeknights 10PM ETThe 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle Weeknights 11PM ET
Joe: Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party
Joe: Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference on Super Tuesday primary election night at The Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)AP
By
MS NOW staff
The GOP is being redefined before our very eyes in this presidential election. Joe Scarborough says, “Welcome to the Republican Party of 2016, where money means little, endorsements mean less and celebrity trumps experience every time.”
Joe writes in The Washington Post:
As Super Tuesday’s results prove all too well to the Republican ruling class, Donald Trump has seized control of their Grand Old Party and has forever changed the way conservative candidates will run for president. …
Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jon Meacham says Trump’s takeover of the Party of Reagan has no precedent in American history: “Donald Trump has managed to hijack an entire political party, and the pilots are asking why no one is on their side. The passengers are cheering for the guy who took over the plane.” …
Trump’s takeover bid is different not only because he is succeeding, but also because the former Hillary Clinton supporter has swooped in from the outside and taken over America’s conservative party much like corporate raider Carl Icahn seized control of TWA in the mid-80s, stripped it of its assets and remade the airline in his own image.
Unless Donald Trump manages his hostile takeover of a bitterly divided Republican Party better than his friend handled TWA’s dissolution, Meacham’s belief that George W. Bush may be the last Republican to be elected to the White House could turn out to be the most lasting legacy of this surreal 2016 campaign.
