This was the last day before the Trump Presidencys 100th day. And congress put in less than half a day because there is no trump agenda item alive in congress right now. There is no bill moving anywhere in congress now. No legislative vehicle that is a trump agenda item. We have never seen a 99th day like this for a president. Every president s busiest legislative year is the first year. Its when their power of persuasion over the congress is at its highest. And it only goes down after that. What a president accomplishes in his first year is usually most of what the president will accomplish in his first term. This is so clear historically that when bob woodward chose to write a book entitled the agenda, he decided to focus entirely on a president s first year. And he picked a president with a loaded first year agenda, bill
clinton. At this point in bill clintons first year, the congress was working overtime. At the same time, congress was working on nafta, a giant tax bill which was inside a giant budget bill. They were also working on a World Trade Agreement and the beginnings of both Clinton Health care and clinton welfare reform. Along with Little Things like an Emergency Extension of unemployment insurance. Some of those things made it all the way to the finish line and became law in the first year. Some in the second year, and some not at all. But they were all important in the first year. They were all being worked on every friday afternoon of the first year of the clinton presidency. And i dont necessarily mean that the house and the senate were in session every friday afternoon, although they were a lot. What i mean is anyone casually following the news could tell you what the Clinton Agenda was and what parts of it congress was actively working on. That is not true tonight. Well cant tell you that theyre actively working on anything. Republicans in the house have certainly wanted it to appear as though theyre working on a Health Care Bill. But when congress is really working on something, the house and the senate both have to work on it. Notice that no one in the senate has been even pretending twork on a Health Care Bill or consult with the house in any way on a bill that would have to pass the United States senate. So nothing about what House Republicans are doing or have been doing on Health Care Reform actually looks like a real legislative activity. And it certainly Isnt Real Enough to keep them in washington after lunch on a friday, even though the Trump Presidency desperately needed some kind of legislative accomplishments within the first 100 days there is only one thing we can promise you about the second year of the trump
presidency, and that is that the Trump Presidency will accomplish less in the second year than in the first year. And that is because all presidencies accomplish less in the second year than they do in the first year. Because as president s always discover, when congress enters an election year, congress does even less than congress did the year before. They dont take risks. That is just a fundamental rule of congress that has nothing to do with President Trump. When you factor in how much Time Congress is going to take off this year for christmas, for thanksgiving, for the entire month of august, the fourth of july, memorial day week, donald trump is now more than a third of the way through his first year of dealing with congress. And he has nothing to show for it. Less than any president in modern history. And that could be why he is saying things like this. Well, i loved my previous life. I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. I actually this is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier. Im a details oriented person. I think you would say that. But i do miss my old life. I like to work. So thats not a problem. But this is actually more work. Okay. Thats amazing stuff. Could we just replay the middle of that. I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a im a details oriented person. More of a what . I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a and then he does that donald trump thing. He cuts off donald trump. He doesnt let donald trump finish Donald Trumps thought. Thats the most important sentence in what he just said. I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a
feel free to tweet me your guesses about how he was going to finish that sentence before he decided that he shouldnt finish that sentence. Whatever he was going to say, donald trump himself decided he shouldnt say it. It was against Donald Trumps better judgment. Imagine, imagine what it had to be for donald trump to think oh, better not say that. He thought it was going to be more of a what . The president gave that interview yesterday. He knew congress would be gone less than 24 hours later, and he would be stuck with his 100 days of zero legislative accomplishments on the Donald Trump Campaign agenda, which was supposed to be the Trump Presidencys first year agenda. Some of it was supposed to be the Trump Presidencys first day agenda. But just about all of it was supposed to be the Trump Presidencys first 100day agenda. A deadline that the president himself imposed. Thats why i proposed a contract with the american voter. Its a set of promises for what ill do in my first 100 days. It includes getting rid of immediately obamacare, which is a disaster. And now he misses his previous life. Did you hear the way he said that . He sounded like the narrater in a british novel looking back on his previous life from his now much more troubled, tragic life. Well, i loved my i i love mid previous life. I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. Has there been a more poignant line uttered by a president in his first 100 days . I loved my previous life. Did you hear his voice completely fall out when he said i had so many things going. On the word going when you listen to that again, on the word going, he just sinks. The man has never been more publicly selfaware, more publicly introspective, which isnt saying much because introspection isnt Donald Trumps thing. Ask yourself how happy is your president. Well, i loved my i i love mid previous life. I loved my previous life. Had so many things going. So many things going. In a speech to the National Rifle association today, the president once again revisited his glory days. Actually, it was his glory day. What fun that was, november 8th. Wasnthat a great evening . You remember that evening . Remember that . [ cheering ] remember them saying we have
breaking news. Donald trump has won the state of michigan. They go michigan . How did that happen. He goes on and on about it. Youve heard it all before. He was supposed to be telling them about how he dramatically to everyones surprise pulled off a victory in getting obamacare repealed and replaced when everyone said he couldnt. But he doesnt have that story to tell. And so he tells his favorite story, the Election Night story. And now in interviews he is looking Back Plaintively at when he thought it would be easier. Its so much easier to be president ial, because i dont have to use any energy. You know, being president ial is easy. Much easier than what i have to do. Youre going to have such Great Health Care and a tiny fraction of the cost. And its going to be so easy. The wall is peanuts. Thats going to be one of the easy negotiations, believe me. Were going to make America Great again. Its going to be easy. Joining us now, nicholas kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning
columnist for the New York Times. Charlie sykes, editorinchief of write wisconsin and an msnbc contributor. Nick, the one contribution i had to Campaign Coverage when it would come to a trump speech or debate or something is to simply say thats not going to happen. Get rid of nafta, thats not going to happen. Coy rattle off all of the things that werent going to happen. I did expect the big tax cut to happen. Republican president s get elected, they cut taxes. There is a way to do that. George bush did it right away. So im sitting here not having come close to predicting they would get zero on the tax cut. But i dont have any other surprises. Are you surprised where we are in the 100 days . I think i had more faith than you did in the president s incompetence. Okay. It seemed to me doubtful he would manage to get these things through. And im indeed, i dont think he is going to get a Health Care Bill through. I dont think he is going to get a tax bill actually passed. And i doubt he is going to get
an infrastructure bill, which is really the lightest load of all. Actually through. I think thats why he is so plaintive. I thought he thought this was going to be like being americas homecoming king, all cheers. And in fact it turns out to be about policy which he is not interested in and about msnbc and the New York Times saying he hasnt accomplished anything. Right. And charlie, i get the feeling that the president thought i get to be popular by being president. That yes, it will be great if i have a bunch of accomplishments in the 100 days. But if i dont have a bunch of accomplishments, dont i still get to be popular . I think there is a lot going on there. Youre right. This is the most poignant and revealing and defining point of his presidency. You unbutton it a little bit. What he is basically acknowledging is how manifestly unqualified and unprepared he was. He had no idea what it was going to be like to deal with congress. He had no idea what it was going to be like to deal with a
federal judiciary. He didnt understand the constitution. He had no idea how complicated the Executive Branch was. And frankly, he obviously had no idea the gravity of the decisions he would have to make as president of the United States, including on International Affairs and trade. But what an amazing thing for him to sit down and go yea i really had no idea what i was getting into. And when i promised that everything was going to be eds, easy, i really didnt have a clue. Remarkable. And it is semi public information. Once youre elected president , to your surprise on november 8th, you have time to grab Bob Woodwards book the agenda. Its not a long book. Its about the first year of presidency. Its the single book to read if youre president. Youd pick up a lot. George mitchell would come to trump tower, and he would tell you here is how it works. He would happily tell you that, if you just took the time during the transition to have this kind of inquisitive mind what is it im getting into. I dont think he has that inquisitive mind. I dont think there is any National Politician ive ever known in my journalistic career who has been uninterested in policy or as ill informed about policy as President Trump. And i think this was compounded by the fact that he essentially wanted to blow up system that he didnt understand and was trying to recruit allies who also wanted to blow it up because they had that instinct were unfamiliar with what they were trying to blow up. Thats why he indeed of the top 550 positions of the administration he has only nominated 10 of them. He doesnt have allies around the gofrt. 200 vacant jobs at the state department. Charlie sykes, the incoming president s have all somewhere been on the scale of egomaniac to go off in that direction in the first place. But they have all had some measure of humility, varying measures of humility as they enter this transition into the presidency where you can see them and they will report this to people and to friends feeling the enormity of it and feeling daunted by how much homework they have to do before january 20th and how much homework theyre going to have to do every night after that. Yeah. Its one thing to have a great ego. But im not a psychologist. I dont play one on television. But donald trump is a narcissist in the classic term. If the normal range of ego is here, he is over here, unburdened by not an inquisitive mind, unburdened by much introspection. And obviously has no sense of humility. So im actually not thinking that that admission he didnt know what he was getting into means that you know what . I need to study more. I need to think more, i need to listen to more intelligent people. Here is a man who came into the presidency and surrounded himself with the clown car of staff, many of them still there. When he was asked what made your job harder than you thought. Mr. President , day 99. Whats made your job harder than you thought . Were moving awfully well. Were getting a lot of things done. We are i dont think there has ever been anything like this. Its a false standard, 100 days. But i have to tell you, i dont think anybody has done what weve been able to do in 100 days. So were very happy. Nick, i agree with him its a false standard. But its a standard he laid down for himself. But a first year is not a false standard. And when youre more than a third of the way through your first year and you have zero, its worth talking about. Yeah. Its a lot more whatever everybody is talking about is no significant legislation passed, and that is true. But if you look at the cabinet, he has one of the least impressive cabinets one has seen. He has appointed the least number of people to the administration of anybody recently. He has the worst Approval Rating of any new president in polling history. And there is really nothing on the horizon that would give one reason to think that things are going to get better. I mean, it has to be said that bill clinton had a somewhat rough start, not by these standards. John kennedy had again a somewhat rough start and they both managed to overcome that. In the case of President Trump, though, he has he comes at it from so much more difficult position. In foreign affairs, i must say there has been a real improvement by getting rid of mike flynn, bringing in mcmaster. He has switched positions on one issue after another and brought himself much closer to the traditional conservative republican position. And there is certainly much more of a realitybased posture in
foreign affairs now than there was at the beginning. Charlie, your final word on the 100 days of President Trump. Well, the good news and the bad news for donald trump is that he has that echo chamber that no matter how bad he does, he has the Alternative Media Reality Machine that is going to beef him up. The bad news for him is its going to insulate him and he is not going to hear what he needs to hear. I think that the one thing that is probably the most Troubling Development is, and i know this word has been overused a lot. As we near the 100 days, how much of his behavior has been normalized . How much we have absorb and normalized his approach to the truth, how much we have normalized that he continues to use slurs like pocahantas. The bizarre erratic nature of this presidency. And i think thats something that we were concerned about at the very beginning. But look, there is huge steaks for everybody, for conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans in at least stepping back and going okay, we got to put the country
first. Were no longer in the the celebrity apprentice. This is tougher than reality tv and the stakes are a little higher for all of us. Charlie sykes gets the last word in this segment. Nick kristof, charlie sykes, thank you both for joining us. Coming up, it is trump versus ryan. It really is. The Back Stabbing backstage between President Trumps staff and Speaker Paul Ryans staff, and how paul ryan became the most unpopular person in American Politics today. Okay lets call his agent im coming over right now. The newly advanced gle can see in your blind spot. Onboard cameras and radar can detect danger all around you. Driver assist systems can pull you back into your lane if drifting. Bye chief. Bye bobby. And will even help you brake, if necessary. It makes driving less of a production. Lease the gle350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. Trust 1 doctor recommended dulcolax. Use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. Suppositories for relief in minutes. And dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. Dulcolax. Designed for dependable relief. 60 of women are wearing the w. Experience leaks. Introducing always my fit. Find the number thats right for your flow and panty size on the top of any always pack. The better the fit, the better it protects. Always. Are you disappointed with how the republicans have handled these big issues . Health care went down and there was some suggestion it might happen today. But now its not going to happen. Im disappointed that it doesnt go quicker. I like them a lot. I have great relationships. Dont forget, most of them i didnt even know. Right. But many of them, like the freedom caucus, i see them we love our president. Were doing this for our president. You look at this. You look at the moderates, the same thing. We love our president. Im disappointed. I tell you, paul ryan is trying very, very hard. I think everybody is trying very hard. It is a very tough system. The attempt to repeal
obamacare is