Senator Elizabeth Warren, who took a DNA test in an attempt to beat President Donald Trump at his claims about whether she has Native American ancestry, cannot "out-Trump Trump," several MSNBC panelists agreed, and said that only Stormy Daniels's lawyer Michael Avenatti can.
The discussion took place Saturday morning as panelists on MSNBC overwhelmingly concluded that Warren, who disclosed results from a DNA test showing "strong evidence" of her Native American ancestry, should not have done so and did not make herself look good as a potential 2020 presidential candidate.
"At first when I saw it, I said, OK, I get you want to battle his shadiness," Danielle Moodie-Mills, who hosts the SiriusXM podcast "WokeAF," said. "The problem is that you can't out-Trump, right? Like he's going to go after you regardless, and I think that the way that you don't engage is to stay above the fray, and that you attack his policies, his demeanor, the way that he treats women, the way that he talks about minorities."
When asked what the lesson was to take away from Warren's so-called mistake, MSNBC contributor Josh Barro referenced Marco Rubio's presidential campaign collapsing after he engaged in name-calling with Trump.
"The lesson is the same one you got from Marco Rubio and various people in the 2016 primary who decided that the best way to get attention or to look tough was to get in the mud with Donald Trump," Barro said. "You had Marco Rubio making jokes about Donald Trump's small hands and what it means when you have small hands and it just makes you look undignified."
Barro concluded: "Unless you're like Michael Avenatti, you don't get in there and try to out-Trump Trump."
"Well, Michael Avenatti does look ridiculous, but in a way that he owns it. It comes off as he intends when he fights on Trump's level," Barro clarified. "It doesn't really work for anyone else."
Moodie-Mills then said, "It's very authentic when he does it," and host David Gura opined that Avenatti "wears it well."
Avenatti—who gained national media attention representing adult film star Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, in a lawsuit against Trump—appreciated the comments from the MSNBC panel.
"I wish a message of hope and inspiration centered on daisies & puppies alone would be successful. It will not be," Avenatti tweeted on Saturday morning. "These are unusual & critical times. There is only one way to end a bully's reign - head-on," Avenatti tweeted Saturday morning. "Once we win, we can then restore."
Rubio's longtime adviser Terry Sullivan last week said to Vanity Fair, "You can't out-Trump Trump."
"The problem with that is after you set your hair on fire, you have to be willing to double down and keep adding gasoline to your head," Sullivan said. "And that's not a normal human reaction to being on fire."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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A Los Angeles native, Jessica Kwong grew up speaking Spanish, Cantonese and English, in that order. Her journalism career started ... Read more
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