Trump 'couldn't get a job at the local mall': New ad hits Trump's legal woes

The new ad from the anti-Trump Republican voting group focuses on how the former president's

legal

problems could be a drag on the presidency. Let's listen. I was wondering if you guys are hiring right now. I was thinking about applying for a job. Did I think about applying for a job here? I am currently facing 88 felonies. I am currently facing 88 felonies for the detention of classified information. Do you all take people who have been found responsible for sexual assault trying to overturn the 2020 election falsification business? records uh I was wondering if that was going to be a problem working with diamonds and Jews are they going to do a background check yeah so that's the only thing so probably not yeah so if they hire people who sexually assault to other people or we want a phone history that we will go through no, I don't think so, I don't think so.

Okay, Donald Trump has been charged with 88 felonies and found liable for sexual assault if Trump is too much of a liability to get a job at his place. Mall, it's too big a responsibility to be president of the United States. Wow, let's bring in the executive director of the Republican Accountability Project, Sarah Longwell. Sarah, it's great to have you on the show this morning. I think there's no telling how things could change. for Trump as these trials drag on, especially the one he's in now, and that announcement crystallizes some of the challenges he faces, Straight Ahead, what are you seeing in terms of liability for President Trump with the cases still pending? in the process?

Well, look, as you know, I do focus groups with undecided voters and voters across the political spectrum every week and one of the things we were able to see is that because Donald Trump has so many charges against him, there are so many different cases. voters are having a hard time understanding the difference and because this one right now basically has the word porn star in the description, sometimes voters take it less seriously than some of us who aren't. I'm sure if he's actually going to go to trial before the election, so what we wanted to do with the ad is really underscore that Donald Trump's level of

legal

responsibility, this guy

couldn

't get a job at the

local

mall

, did he?

TRUE? You know, a fast food restaurant wouldn't hire him with his record, so the idea that we would make him president of the United States again is like we become desensitized to it, we become a little desensitized to who Donald Trump is. and because it is always like this. So many, there are so many charges, there are so many, you know, serious crimes, it's easy to let them wash over you, but we really wanted to emphasize that this is crazy, and you know the idea that we would give this man access to classified documents again. After the way he handled the classified documents, he refused to return them.

I mean, there's so much about what we've seen in his behavior since he's been president. I'm not even talking about the person we saw, that he was president, but what. we've known about him since he left office, that's absolutely disqualifying and I think because there's a numbness in voters because you've got sort of two functional incumbents running against each other, people are a little depressed about seeing a rerun. of 2020 you have to start showing people how crazy this is, we are going to have to have new ways to wake people up to the madness of it all Sarah Don.

I think that ad is fantastic and I think the work that you've been doing has been fantastic. You are, as you mentioned a lot of focus groups with Republican voters, which seems to be the key theme or themes that are resonating with Republican voters who are likely to leave Trump and go to Biden. when you have sort of two-time Trump voters who have decided that they are out of Donald Trump, it tends to be on January 6th as if there is a moment of respite for a certain sector of Republican voters. I know we hear a lot about how, and it's true, it seems like most Republican voters are absolutely tolerant of Trump's behavior, they defend his behavior, they've continued to go from, you know, January 6th was a terrible day to now, you know, supporting, saying that you know, on January 6, the people who attacked.

In the Capital, they are held hostage, but there is a subset of people, and I have to tell you, they tend to be older Republicans, because there are the Republicans who came of age under Ronald Reagan, who, as you know, still believe in a Republican Party based on a limited base. government free market American leadership in the world and they are the ones who after January 6 said I'm done not all of those people are going to vote for Joe Biden many of them are still very tribal um but they will not vote for Donald Trump again and then, obviously, there's also abortion, it's a big issue for a lot of Republican men and women, and then these court cases, you know, there's still a group of voters who think look, if the president is a former president, he's convicted of a crime that makes it much harder for them to vote for him.

Okay, Sarah Longwell, thank you very much, Charlie Sykes. I'm curious to hear your opinion and as one of the major swing states, it hasn't. the biggest swing state in Wisconsin, what do you think the trials will be like for undecided voters? Well, of course, we don't really know, but I know I'm still somewhat skeptical that there are any voters who will see these trials. and I'm like, hey, I didn't vote for Donald Trump before, but now I'm going to vote for the guy, um because, you know, like Sarah says, we've been numb about it, but over the next few months we're going to be reminded of it. who this guy is and I think what this ad does is highlight something that I think is really EXT common, you know, doing the thought experiment of imagining what job in American society Donald Trump would be qualified for other than the presidency that we have.

We have saved our lowest standard. You wouldn't hire him at the

mall

. You wouldn't hire him to take care of your children. You wouldn't hire him to be the CEO of a publicly traded company. You can't imagine any Ed institution. Do you know any? any school or higher education institution hires him. I can't imagine any corporation including him on their board of directors. He wouldn't be qualified for any position in the US military you know he goes through all this so it's an interesting point if you wouldn't do business with him if you wouldn't hire him if you wouldn't associate him why would you give him the codes nuclear why would you make him commander in chief and return him to the presidency I think that's a very powerful, uh, that's a very, very powerful argument and I think it will work with at least a subset of undecided voters.

Well, it certainly should be a critical question for those undecided voters to answer over the next six months. Thank you so much, Charlie, thanks to The Washington Post Jackie El for your great reporting, as always, great app this morning Hi everyone, MSNBC has a new and improved app. You'll receive real-time alerts and analysis, live blogs, in-depth essays, video highlights, and the best election coverage of 2024. Download the new. MSNBC app, here's how to do it. Tap the App Store on your phone. Press search in the bottom right corner. Type MSNBC. Click on the MSNBC app. Click Get or the cloud icon and enjoy.