‘It didn’t feel like his heart was quite there’: Emily Maitlis says Trump’s third presidential bid lacked ‘energy’
16 November 2022, 15:21
Emily Maitlis' take on Trump's announcement to run in 2024
Emily Maitlis weighs in on the performance of Republicans during the US midterms calling Donald Trump's announcement "subdued".
Emily Maitlis told James O’Brien during his show today that Donald Trump had lacked “energy” in his announcement to run for president again in 2024 yesterday.
James had asked about the significance of the night, and the “possibility that he might have postponed it given the unexpected disappointment of the midterms from his point of view”.
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Emily responded: “It was teleprompter Trump wasn’t it..and it was quite, I thought, subdued.”
She continued: “If you compared what he sounded like when he was in Ohio backing one of his candidates, JD Vance, there was the energy and there was the shout and the mass, and this time it had that sort of slight temazepam feel to it, I thought.”
Emily explained that “he was going to do it because he had to”, likening Trump to “one of those parents that have been told, you’ve got to follow through”.
“If you said you'll do something, you’ve got to follow through”, she added, much to James’ amusement.
“Everyone around him was telling him not to do it”, she said. “It’s the worst possible time to do it. He knows that.”
The News Agents Podcast co-host added that Donald Trump “was making up numbers about the people he’d supported and whether they’d won or not”.
“The blunt truth is the swing races, the swing seat races where his candidates were standing did not perform well”, she said.
“It didn’t feel like his heart was quite there”, Emily concluded.
Read more: ‘Hell yes he can win!’: Ex-Republican Congressman believes Trump can win in 2024
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