Trump's new argument shows his 'unbelievable narcissism': ex-GOP strategist

Former President Donald Trump and his allies are trying to convince voters that everything was better four years ago just before he left office — despite the fact that unemployment topped out at 15 percent, society was shut down by a lethal pandemic, and Trump himself was demanding that the CDC not take exposed passengers off a cruise ship because "I like the numbers being where they are."

Former George W. Bush strategist Matt Dowd slammed the former president for his self-aggrandizement in an MSNBC segment alongside Dr. Uché Blackstock, after anchor Joy Reid played a clip of Trump's comments about the ship from 2020.

"Can you explain to me how if 9/11 changed all of our lives and the way we travel and everything about our lives when we get on a plane, how is it that people have blown off the fact that Donald Trump utterly failed at that fundamental duty of a president and think he should be president again?" asked anchor Joy Reid.

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"Well, I think this conversation is so important," said Dowd. "And it leads us to the bigger part of this conversation, which is the foundations of democracy have actually shaken because of this. Because democracy depends on the idea that we all agree on the common good. That we all agree that there's some common good that our leaders are supposed to actually help achieve based on a common set of facts."

Dowd emphasized he didn't always agree with Bush, particularly on the issue of the Iraq War — "but George Bush believed in the common good of the United States of America and believed in the common set of facts. How he applied those we can argue with and we could debate and all of that. Donald Trump believes in neither one. Donald Trump does not believe in the common good. And Donald Trump does not believe in a common set of facts. And this health issue — you're so right, is one of the primary responsibilities of the president is to protect us both from problems within our country and from outside our country. And his only — his unbelievable narcissism as evidenced by that clip shows that he has no idea or no, even sense he wants to do that. And everything he's done since then is a manifestation of that personality trait or that what he believes in this."

This isn't just about COVID, either, Dowd said. "This applies to belief in facts on the economy and this belief in facts related to global climate change, all of which the Republicans dispute. I mean, they actually think people like Dr. Blackstock are the problem because they actually speak in facts and evidence and all that. And they've decided that they are an anti-science party. That's what they fundamentally decided here. That shakes our democracy."

Watch the video below or at the link.

Matthew Dowd slams Trump's "unbelievable narcissism" for claiming things were better 4 years ago youtu.be