To call Donald Trump’s campaign a dumpster fire would be an insult to dumpster fires. This week, he fired his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, less than a month before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. So, why’d he do it? To shift attention away from rumors of a convention coup, or from the revelation that his campaign finance operation is a shambles? Or did he finally just figure out that his hotheaded manager was a rank amateur?
Conservative author, Trump critic, and onetime Sarah Palin enthusiast Matt Lewis joins us to assess the damage. Lewis also explores how his awakening to the realities of Palinism shaped his reaction to Trump’s candidacy.
Meanwhile, Republicans are holding out hope that Trump will select a respected career politician as a running mate—or that anyone suitable might actually say yes. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, faces the opposite dilemma: Trump’s incompetence frees her to run with pretty much anyone she wants. Washington Post political satirist Alexandra Petri comes on the show to talk and mock Veepstakes 2016.
Further reading:
- How to cover Trump fairly: Alexandra Petri’s satirical style guide for The Washington Post
- The GOP’s problem with the “radical middle,” by Andrew Continetti for the Free Beacon
- How the party of Palin became the party of Trump, by Jonathan Chait in New York magazine
- Matt Lewis’s mea culpa for Sarah Palin, in the Daily Beast
- Brian Beutler explains why Clinton can pick any veep she pleases, in the New Republic