'What are we doing here?': MSNBC host floored by GOP 'sleepwalking' Maxwell scandal
An MSNBC host was floored on Sunday by the GOP's lack of reaction to President Donald Trump's latest scandal.
Last week, Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred from a maximum security prison in Florida to a minimum security prison in a residential part of Texas. That's despite Maxwell serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking, a charge that is preventing her from participating in a rehabilitation program to train service animals.
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace discussed the news on her show "Deadline White House Weekend" with journalists John Heilemann of NBC News and Tim Miller of The Bulwark.
"The idea that Ghislaine Maxwell is not suitable to be around a puppy because they are vulnerable and they are going to spend their dog lives with vulnerable humans as service companions, is to me so effed up that we're even having this conversation," Wallace said.
"What are we doing here?" she continued.
Several experts have suggested that Maxwell's transfer was payback for her providing the Trump administration with something they could use to dispel the Jeffrey Epstein story.
Even though Trump has denied knowing of the transfer, some have speculated that transferring a high-profile convict like Maxwell couldn't have been approved without his being informed.
To Wallace, the lack of response from the GOP about the Maxwell scandal is its most "heinous" episode of "sleepwalking" yet.
"[Maxwell] is a sex criminal," Wallace said. "And she is being treated as someone credible by [Deputy Attorney General] Todd Blanche. She has this upgrade in her prison conditions, approved by somebody in the Trump administration. For all the sleepwalking the Republican Party has done for nine years, this is among the most heinous."