MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts Attacks GOP Strategist for Comparing Donald Trump to 'Great' Biden

MSNBC
MSNBC Live
May 29, 2012
11:24 a.m. EDT

THOMAS ROBERTS: Speaking of the Rominee tonight Mitt Romney is expected to cross the magic number of 1,144 number of delegates that he needs to clinch the nomination once Texas Republicans cast their primary vote ballots. That’s all happening today. Amanda Terkel, Morris Reed is a democratic strategist And Hogan Gidley national communications director for Rick Santorum's presidential campaign. Its great to see all of you this morning and I just want to get this out of the gate The DNC has released this statement in advance of today’s event saying once again Mitt Romney is failing the moral leadership test instead of rejecting Donald Trump's birther conspiracy theories and divisive attacks. He’s endorsing them by campaigning and fund-raising with him. Hogan I want to start with you. Mitt Romney says he doesn't agree with everybody who supports him, but if the president appeared with Bill Maher, who has said some really hateful things about Romney’s religion, wouldn't Republicans be just as outraged?

HOGAN GIDLEY:  I'm sure they would be. But, I mean, this whole issue is a little bit ridiculous. I mean, speaking from doing these presidential campaigns. I mean, obviously he can't be held responsible for things Donald Trump says. But, earlier on the shows on MSNBC, one of your anchors actually said how can Mitt Romney stand next to a guy who could embarrass him at any moment? And I'm thinking to myself, well, Barack Obama could be embarrassed at any moment by a guy he made vice president. So, I mean, these things happen. You can't be held accountable for everything people who support you say and people who support you do. And uh- this is just one of those deal where there are a lot of people who support President Obama who think George Bush was a conspirator on 9/11. It's just silly.

ROBERTS: Hogan, are you really going to throw Joe Biden under the bus and compare him to- Are you really going to compare Joe Biden, one of this country's most dignified and greatest political leaders that can cross the bridge, getting to both sides of the aisle and compare him to a Donald Trump? Do you really want to say that?

GIDLEY:  I'm not comparing him to Donald Trump.

ROBERTS: You’re going to compare him to the “gaffetasticness” of Donald Trump?

GIDLEY: No, someone on your network said they couldn't believe that Mitt Romney would put Trump next to him because he would embarrass-

ROBERTS: Yeah and you just that said you just said that the Vice President is just as prone to these gaffes.

GIDLEY: He has embarrassed the president on many occasions. He has embarrassed the president on many occasions. This is all very, very silly stuff. Look, let's get focused on the issues here. You can't be held accountable for what people who support you say or what they do.

ROBERTS: It’s one thing to not be held accountable, but it is another thing to thrust yourself on to the national stage and appear with them appear with them in what will be millions of dollars cash grab in Vegas. I mean shouldn't you speak up or try to put a..put uh an end to all of this, as you call nonsense, and get back to the real issues. I mean Donald Trump was on CNBC this morning talking about just this.

GIDLEY: But he has! He has disavowed the birther movement. There’s no question about that and Donald Trump is not known really for the birther movement. He is known for the economy. He is known for trying to turn around profits and make money in this country and live the American dream and help others do the same. And he thinks Mitt Romney is the one who can do that by turning this economy around. So he supports Mitt Romney.

ROBERTS: I'm a little bit surprised that you can come on here and defend Donald Trump and say he is not keeping the birther conspiracy alive when he was just on CNBC this morning keeping it alive.

GIDLEY: That’s not what I said I said he’s not known for that.  if anything he’s known for the economy and trying to make money in this country and that’s why he’s supporting Mitt Romney because he believe he can turn the economy around. Its just one issue in a lot of things that I’m sure Mitt Romney and Donald Trump don’t agree on and I’m sure- um the president doesn’t agree with a lot of his donors ton the fact that George Bush was a co-conspirator on 9/11 or silly things like that  this is not- this is what we do going into the summer... we focus on ancillary issues that don’t really matter because we have to draw headlines when viewership’s down, readership’s down, and newspapers- we have to bring up these crazy topics instead of focusing on the economy and focusing on what we’re going to do in this next election.

ROBERTS: But it’s not the media bringing up this..this topic though. It’s not the media bringing up this topic. It’s Donald Trump. Why are you blaming the media about this when it’s Donald Trump who throws this crap out there?

GIDLEY: I’m not blaming- I’m blaming the media for bringing for uh..for covering what he says about the birther movement. Uh, Mitt Romney has disavowed it, I’ve disavowed it, Rick Santorum has disavowed it That  stuff is nonsense.  Let’s focus on the last four years of this president, Barack Obama, and what we’re going to do moving forward.