Donny Deutsch on Thursday slammed “half the country” and said Republicans have led the GOP in a bad direction.
MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire asked whether Republican leaders' meeting with Trump, despite their past criticism of him, was “symbolic of how rotten the Republican Party is right now.”
“We've been doing this dance for eight years with a range of Republicans, from mean-spirited to lack of character to complete duplicity and fraud,” said journalist Mike Barnicle, who argued that the Republican Party he knew is gone. “One party, a major party, is gone and faded and means nothing to a lot of people today. I don't know how to rebrand it.”
Deutsch, by contrast, argued that voters were to blame.
Trump closes in on Biden in long-time Democratic states
Donny Deutsch slammed Republicans on a recent episode of MSNBC's “Morning Joe.”
“The real issue is not the parties themselves, but the voters who are affiliated with political parties, which was 74 million in the last election,” Deutsch said. “Trump is ahead in the polls this time, but not by much.”
“The real question, and the most troubling thing, and I know a lot of Trump supporters, is the party is speaking for itself. They're transparent and we can see that. Other than Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney, and as we've just seen with Paul Ryan, I don't think there's any Republican who has strayed from or gone against 'Fearless Leadership,'” he said, appearing to be a sarcastic reference to Trump.
Deutsch added that the fact that voters know exactly what they're getting from Trump and the Republican Party, yet half still support them, is what keeps him up at night.
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Former President Donald Trump speaks with Republican Party officials, allies and potential 2024 vice presidential nominees during the Republican National Committee's donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida on May 4, 2024 (Donald Trump 2024 Campaign)
“So how can it be that at this point half the population is saying, 'That's my party, I'm going to vote for that, that's what's good for me'? That's the problem. This goes beyond parties. It's the voters who are voting for parties. That's what keeps me up at night,” he added.
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Alexander Hall is deputy editor for Fox News Digital. Send story tips to Alexander.hall@fox.com.