Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Trump facing GOP pushback over his comments on Rob Reiner

Geoff Bennett:

President Trump receives rare backlash from members of his own party today for a social media post about the death of director Rob Reiner. Meantime, Congress is running out of time to reach a deal on the Affordable Care Act tax subsidies.

For analysis, we turn to our Politics Monday duo. That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

It's great to have you both here.

Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report:

Good to be here.

Geoff Bennett:

So, look, it was an incredibly callous and cruel post, even by Donald Trump's standards, about the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele.

So, after the apparent homicides, the president wrote on TRUTH Social that their deaths were a very sad thing and that they would rest in peace. But most of the post focused on attacking Reiner for his anti-Trump politics. And the president even suggested that Reiner had brought his death upon himself through what Trump called Trump derangement syndrome.

What makes this moment different, you both know, is the response. You have Republicans, not just Trump critics, but Republicans in battleground districts, members of Congress, pushing back, including New York Congressman Mike Lawler, Oklahoma Congresswoman Stephanie Bice.

You have also got a number of several conservative commentators also saying that this is really just depraved. What do you make of Republicans breaking rank here?

Amy Walter:

Yes, I think there is still a lot of grief over the murder of Charlie Kirk.

And, remember there was a lot of consternation by many in conservative circles about the way that they believed people on the left were treating that murder. There were many callous tweets and responses from some about Charlie Kirk's murder.

And the approach that some conservative movement took was to say we need to have an absolute truce to this kind of language, that, regardless of anyone's political opinion, something horrible happens to them, we do not go and use that as political beliefs against them.

In this case, the president did not. What's different, you're right, though, is the fact that individual members of Congress and members of the sort of MAGA faithful coming out and overwhelmingly pushing back. I think a lot of this is this a feeling that the president in this case is taking what they had hoped to be a sort of moral high ground and had undercut that.

Geoff Bennett:

Tam.

Tamara Keith, National Public Radio:

Yes, I mean, you did see some members of Congress contorting themselves to try to defend the social media post.

President Trump himself was asked about the pushback that he was getting, which you described many of it. Marjorie Taylor Greene, congresswoman from Georgia, very MAGA until recently, also pushed back. If you looked in the comments on TRUTH Social, and that's a pretty self-selecting group, a lot of people in the comments were like, sir, are you sure? Maybe don't do this.

But President Trump was asked about this pushback and he doubled down. He was asked in the Oval Office. He continued to trash Rob Reiner and his politics. It seems very clear that Reiner's politics had nothing to do with his murder. But President Trump often finds a way to make everything about himself, and that's also what that post did.

Amy Walter:

Yes.

Geoff Bennett:

Yes.

Well, let's move on. We are heading into another week on Capitol Hill here with votes planned on the Affordable Care Act. No agreement yet on extending the enhanced subsidies. What, if anything, has actually changed? Has anything changed since this stalemate started?

Amy Walter:

I know. Well, there's a lot more conversation.

Geoff Bennett:

Yes.

Amy Walter:

Just talking to folks today who are following this a lot more closely than I am, they have not given up the belief that something can happen on these health care subsidies, whether it's at the end of the year or the very beginning of next year, that, even as there's no cohesive agreement on this, there are two paths, it seems.

One is, goes through the regular order of things, have a vote, maybe an amendment that includes subsidies for the extensions, which many moderate Republicans want. The other is to go around regular order with this so-called discharge petition. It would mean that some of those moderates would have to join with more than 200 Democrats for a three-year extension.

Now, that — if that second path happens, we talk a lot on here about the president's hold on his party, whether it is loosening. That would be a sign that the president's grip is absolutely loosened if members of his own party are willing to team up with Democrats.

Geoff Bennett:

Where is President Trump in all of this?

Amy Walter:

And that's the $5,000 million question.

Geoff Bennett:

Yes.

Tamara Keith:

He has been pretty unengaged, I think, is the best way to describe it. He's talking about he wants health savings accounts, he wants the money to go directly to the people. It's kind of like he's having a conversation that is completely different than the conversation that is happening on Capitol Hill.

And there's no momentum behind what he's talking about. There's also no muscle behind what he's talking about. He's not trying to force Republican members of Congress to do this thing. He's just kind of musing about what would be an idea. But there isn't real pen to paper.

There isn't a specific plan. The House is voting this week on a measure from the speaker that does not include what President Trump was asking for.

Amy Walter:

Right.

Tamara Keith:

The Senate voted on something that you could, if you squinted, you could say that was basically what the president was talking about. It didn't get enough support because it turns out, to get things through the Senate, you still need a bipartisan majority. You need 60 votes.

And that means you need some sort of compromise, which just isn't happening. I will note, in terms of timing just very quickly, today is the deadline…

Amy Walter:

Right.

Tamara Keith:

… to sign up for Obamacare plans in most states if you want your insurance to start on January 1. So the deadline is here. Yes.

Geoff Bennett:

Yes.

And, Amy, you pointed our team to the interview that President Trump gave to The Wall Street Journal where he's talking big picture about his economic policy, to include health care. And he more or less openly acknowledges that his economic policies may or may not translate into political wins for Republicans in the midterms.

Amy Walter:

Right.

Geoff Bennett:

I mean, what does that reveal about how the White House, how he is thinking about the potential political payoff from his economic agenda?

Amy Walter:

Right.

Well, his economic agenda and this health care agenda.

Geoff Bennett:

Yes.

Amy Walter:

He knows that both of these things are critical to his party's ability to hold onto the House. We know that he and members of his team pressured Republicans in these states to redistrict in order to help keep the House.

Here, you have two opportunities to help your party keep control of the House, health care and economic policies. And yet he seems to be sort of taking a back seat and saying, well, in this interview specifically, he says, I guess, maybe 2026, it won't have kicked in yet, in other words, his economic policies kicking in.

But the other thing he says is, historically, it's very difficult for the party who's in the White House to keep the House. This is also a very tenuous time for Republican members. They're going home for the holidays. This is when many of them have the sit-down with their families. Should I run again? What do we think? Put in another two years, put in another six years.

They're seeing the president's approval ratings at an all-time low. They're having this fight over health care, not able to come together. There is obviously a lot of tension, intraparty tension within the House conference. And now they see the president saying, well, I don't know. It's really hard to win in a midterm year when you're the party in power.

It's not a great sort of send-off to those folks who are contemplating perhaps whether or not they want to come back and fight for their seat.

Geoff Bennett:

And not a great start to a campaign, an aggressive campaign tour next year, where I'm told the president's going to go state to state and talk about his economic agenda. And he's not yet confident that it will actually be able to deliver a midterm win.

Tamara Keith:

Yes, he is distancing himself because he always distances himself from things that don't look like a sure thing to be a win.

A quote from this Wall Street Journal article that really stood out to me, he says: "I have created the greatest economy in history, but it may take people a while to figure these things out," essentially saying, well, it's the people's problem, not mine.

Geoff Bennett:

Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, our thanks to you both.

Amy Walter:

You're welcome.

Tamara Keith:

You're welcome.