Political analyst Mark Halperin said Friday that historians who record the first month of President Donald Trump’s second term will be baffled by his opponents’ incompetence in countering him.
Halperin, on “Wake Up America,” was reacting to a clip of “The View” co-host Joy Behar accusing Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk on Thursday of supporting apartheid when he lived in South Africa as a child. The political analyst said Behar’s comments exemplified how Trump’s rivals are failing to focus on issues that matter to average Americans.
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“I think when historians write about this first month of the Trump administration, they’re going to be bewildered by just the rank inability of the opposition to figure out how to talk about what’s going on,” Halperin said. “And you saw there in sharp relief … just making claims about Elon Musk that have really nothing to do with the real lives of real people in America. But also just riffing on things that — just hard to know where she was headed.”
Behar had to walk back her baseless accusation in the next segment following her accusation. Democratic Illinois Rep. Jonathan Jackson similarly claimed at a protest rally on Feb. 5 that Musk wants to bring apartheid to the U.S.
Musk even went to an anti-apartheid concert as a child, according to an excerpt of Walter Isaacson’s book, “Elon Musk.”
Since Trump’s November victory, Democrats have been divided on how to combat the administration’s agenda. Halperin said on Sunday that Musk has them “discombobulated.”
“I’m not a medical professional and I generally urge people not to try to make diagnoses over Google, but this one, I don’t think even requires a Google search,” Halperin said. “They’re discombobulated by Elon Musk because of his power and influence and how quickly he’s moving. And I think most smart Democratic strategists say, ‘Stop attacking the man and focus on the ideas and the impact some of his moves are making,’ but they just don’t seem to be able to resist going after him personally.”
NewsNation host Chris Cuomo also said on Feb. 19 that Democrats constantly denouncing Trump and Musk shows they have not “learned” from their 2024 election losses.
“It seems like anything that Trump or Musk does, they have to condemn, and they have to condemn it on the basis of the people personally,” Cuomo said. “Trump is a Nazi. Musk has apartheid roots. And to me, it just proves they haven’t learned their lesson yet, that they should be in the better idea business.”
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