'Trump's party': Michael Steele slams Lara Trump serving as the new RNC chair

38 after the hour in an NBC News exclusive just weeks after becoming co-

chair

of the Republican National Committee, Donald Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump sat down for a wide-ranging interview with NBC's Garrett H and talked about the direction of the game. as well as the 2024 presidential campaign with us to talk more about this NBC News correspondent Garrett H, who covers the Trump campaign and sat down with Laura Trump, also Michael Steel, former

chair

man of the Republican National Committee and host of the end of week on Saturdays and Sundays here on MSNBC. and Susan Paage, USA Today's Washington bureau chief, so Garrett, what did Lara Trump have to tell you?

Well, José. I found the whole conversation interesting because the very appointment of her to this position solidifies the idea that this is now Donald Trump's Republican

party

and in Our interview she reinforced that point in many ways: the way she talks about making voters by Nikki Haley return to the

party

or the African American voters they are targeting is about going after Joe Biden, it is very much in line with the Trump campaign tactics in Ukraine, for example, are very much in line with Donald Trump, but also is trying to pressure the Donald Trump of 2020 to adopt the kind of modern election tactics of 2024 and that includes things like voting by mail and voting early, something that Donald Trump has demonized, making those tactics unpopular with voters Republicans and, although she herself has questioned the 2020 election, she is now trying to have it both ways here and lead the party into the modern era of elections without turning her back on elections. his father-in-law's denialism I asked him what the RNC's view on this would be under his leadership and his response was instructive: Will the RNC's position in 2024 be that the 2020 election was not decided fairly or that it was somehow stolen good , I think that's in the past, I think that's in the past, we learned a lot, we certainly took a lot of notes right now, we have 23 states that have 78 lawsuits in these states to make sure it's more difficult. cheating and it's easier to vote and every person whether Republican or Democrat should want we want fairness and transparency in our elections the past is the past so I think that's what we'll probably expect to see from the rest. of the party, not necessarily Donald Trump himself, to move forward with this idea of ​​putting 2020 behind us as best they can, trying to take what they've learned from that and make it not about the idea of ​​a stolen election, but to make sure their voters believe they can and should vote early and vote by mail so they don't lose that advantage to Democrats again in a second election.

What Donald Trump is willing to say or do on that issue, Jose, I think is a totally separate issue on which, as we've learned time and time again, no one really speaks for him except him, yeah, and Michael. I'm just thinking that it was many years ago, almost in a sense, many lifetimes ago, that you were president of the RNC, how do you see this? Oh, it's hysterical, I appreciate that. Gosh, Mr. H, for the interview, the reality is that he spoke to the co-chair of the RNC, not the chair of the RNC, and that should tell him everything he wants to know about what this is and what it is.

The co-president is usually an unknown factor, they do not direct anything. No journalist is looking for the co-chair of the party to ask questions, but this is different and should tell you everything you need to know and the fact that Laura is sitting there thinking and trying to make us believe that when Donald Trump tells her that I need him to pay This bill, that the Republican National Committee is not going to pay now, no matter what mechanism they establish, that is simply not real. that she says that, well that's the past, 2020 is in the past, that's not true either because Donald Trump is here talking about it, which means all the Republicans are going to talk about it, so you know what they are trying to do. two things they are trying to paint at once, you know, paint, paint all this as something normal, oh, now we are a typical, normal political party that will take care of defeating our political opponents, this is not this party and This It's not this race, it's all driven by what Donald Trump wants at the time he wants it and that's why she's there so stop pretending it's anything other than you're in that role because you don't have any reason to do it another way. be the co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, except for the fact that his father-in-law is the former president and the incumbent head of the party, otherwise he will be behind, just sit at home, that's the truth, so don't do it let's do. pretend that it is something different than what we see here that this is Trump's party, she is there to do what Trump wants her to do, that this will be nothing more than prosecuting that case, whether in 2020 or 2024, and Susan meanwhile it is Independent.

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced yesterday that he has chosen attorney and businesswoman Nicole Shanahan and her running mate this year. He also said this about accusations that she is playing to sabotage the November election. The main technique is to call myself a saboteur and still afraid. In Americans, voting for me will get another scary candidate elected. Our campaign is a spoiler. I agree that it is a spoiler for President Biden and for President Trump. Susan Trump reacted in a post on her social media site overnight by saying quote. I love that he's running, so Susan being RFK Jr is the biggest threat to Yes, I'm talking about a rare issue that Donald Trump and Joe Biden agree on, which is that RFK Jr is the biggest threat. for Biden than he for Trump.

I mean, it's less direct. and a clear and sharp threat, as is Cornell West or Jill Stein, his supporter, largely from the Democratic side of things, but generally, given the strength of Donald Trump's support and given the need for Biden to obtain all the votes I can. Can that not go to Trump? RFK positions POS as playing a spoiler role for President Biden and you know that's one of the reasons these third-party candidates tend to fade away as the election gets closer because Americans are generally reluctant to waste their vote. . when the going gets tough, they often return home to their party as election day approaches, Jose, yeah, and how serious of a threat RFK Jr poses to both Democrats and Republicans, uh, He's a threat to both of us, I mean, I think. that there are some private polls that have RFK Jr reaching that 12 to 133% mark nationally, that's a problem, that's a problem, does that number grow between now and November to reach Ross perau's level of 177% and do we know what that did? to the Bush campaign um at that time uh the same Truth is in effect for Joe Biden in this race he is a bigger threat to Joe Biden than to Donald Trump uh and that's why Donald Trump loves the fact that he's in the race he knows what the private polls of his field show, so yes, it is a concern for both parties.

I think they will see it and I have already started to see it. Garrett may notice a pushback from the Biden campaign in RFK Jr. I think you'll see more of that, probably less from Republicans in the RNC, for example, because they think this works for them, that it eats up the most progressive vote that is. I'm already fed up with Joe Biden to a certain extent and I have somewhere to go instead of, um, the point of coming home to the Democratic Party, if there's a port in the storm that they can stop at before they get there.

Garrett there is Michael Steel. and Susan Paige, thank you so much for joining us this morning Hello 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 coverage of the 2024 election. Download the new MSNBC app here. how to do it, you 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 it.