'Driven by rage': MSNBC host says Trumpless GOP debate still showed his fury
24 August 2023
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Donald Trump was missing from Wednesday night's GOP debate, but his anger was front and center, according to MSNBC host Alex Wagner.
Speaking on a panel immediately following the Republican presidential primary debate, Wagner noted that, during the second half of the debate, she noticed "the shroud of anger and grievance" that colored everything.
"I mean, when you talk about people's good moments, it's not because they are offering some brilliant vision or showing humor or humanity or charisma," she said. "It's like Nikki Haley got mad at Vivek Ramaswamy and said he has no foreign policy experience, and it shows. Or, you know, Chris Christie landed one on Vivek Ramaswamy -- Vivek Ramaswamy being the whipping post and all of this."
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This was true even with observers, Wagner said.
"Even the crowd, the Bret Baier moment, having to school the crowd, there was a time in American politics where winning wasn't about who was the angriest, who was the meanest, who landed the punch most directly. It is so clear to me that one of the myriad ways in which Trump has transformed the GOP is by making it a party that is driven by rage, and is powered by a sense of grievance and injustice and there is no offering of a vision for the country. There is a slamming of Democrats, liberal elites, Joe Biden and American society is poisoned."