Vivek channels Trump, DeSantis bombs- Brian Tyler Cohen on Republican debate
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00:00 Our next guest is covering them all.
00:02 I want to bring in Brian Tyler Cohen, author of a new election-themed MSNBC newsletter
00:06 launching today, Good Day to Launch It, featuring his exclusive A Winner, A Loser, and a Liar
00:11 analysis.
00:12 He's also the host of the podcast No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen.
00:16 So I want to get to all of your analysis here.
00:20 Your winner is Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:22 Others would agree with you that we've been talking to this evening, but why?
00:25 Yeah, I think he was this first real manifestation of Trumpism beyond Trump himself.
00:32 And he kind of figured out here that all you have to do is basically figure out ways to
00:37 sow chaos for the sake of sowing chaos.
00:40 And this is a time in the Republican primary where, you know, attention for the sake of
00:44 attention really is the whole ballgame here.
00:46 And Vivek Ramaswamy figured it out, for better or for worse.
00:50 Your loser is Ron DeSantis.
00:51 I agree with you.
00:53 But I want to know why you think he was the loser.
00:56 Well, I mean, his most potent attack of the night was against a high school student who
01:01 was worried about the effects of climate change.
01:04 And then it was pretty much all downhill from there to Tim Miller's point.
01:06 Who he was kind of mean to.
01:07 He was a little mean to.
01:09 Yeah, which is a recurring theme for Ron DeSantis.
01:11 I mean, we all remember that moment where he yelled at high school students for the
01:15 crime of wearing masks during the during the COVID outbreak.
01:19 So this is, again, a recurring theme for Ron DeSantis.
01:21 But it went all downhill from there.
01:23 Tim was speaking earlier about this moment where, you know, he had to look around to
01:28 give himself permission to make sure he had cover before raising his hand, that he would,
01:32 you know, that he would protect Donald Trump, that he would pardon Donald Trump.
01:38 And it just shows the extent to which, and I've said this before, but the extent to which
01:42 kind of capitulation to Donald Trump is really embedded in the DeSantis campaign.
01:46 He's so afraid of doing anything that would that would piss Donald Trump off, that would
01:51 piss his base off.
01:53 And so what we have is this weird straggling, straddling of the middle ground here between
01:58 him too afraid to say anything that might upset Ron DeSantis, that might upset Donald
02:02 Trump in his base, and also trying to run away a race where the only person standing
02:06 in between him and winning the Republican primary right now is Donald Trump.
02:10 It really struck me that no one seemed to care to attack him.
02:14 What struck you about that?
02:15 What did you think about that?
02:16 Yeah, I mean, I think I think at this point, the fear is just palpable among these people.
02:23 I mean, you you saw even the way that that this audience here was just too was not afraid
02:30 in the slightest to go after anybody who they thought wasn't towing the line in an adequate
02:35 fashion.
02:36 Right.
02:37 And so I think it's just kind of understood in this Republican primary that they're all
02:40 vying for second place, which is really sad testament to what we're seeing right now in
02:44 the Republican primary.
02:45 But but I mean, it is what it is.
02:48 There's nobody really fighting to win this thing, except in a weird way, Vivek Ramaswamy,
02:54 who kind of is espousing the same Trumpism that Donald Trump himself is espousing.
02:58 So I don't see how that's really going to go down to his benefit.
03:00 Vivek had a big night in the premiere of your newsletter, Brian.
03:04 He also took on the title of liar.
03:07 Let's take a listen.
03:08 I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for, so I can say this.
03:14 The climate change agenda is a hoax.
03:15 The climate change agenda is a hoax.
03:16 And we have to declare a limit.
03:17 And the reality is the anti carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy.
03:27 And so the reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are
03:33 of actual climate.
03:36 I think the reason for your choice is self-explanatory.
03:39 And I know the Biden team has already tweeted about this.
03:42 But give us a rundown of your choice on biggest liar.
03:44 Yeah, I mean, just to suggest that climate change and the democratic agenda that is actually
03:50 confronting it are a hoax is not only crazy because of what we all objectively know, but
03:56 to say this kind of stuff at a time where we just watched Phoenix contend with plus
04:01 110 degree temperatures for 31 days in a row, where the drought in Maui set the stage for
04:06 these wildfires that just devastated those towns there and and a tropical storm just
04:12 pummeled Southern California for the first time in almost a century.
04:15 And to suggest that it's the democratic agenda on climate that's somehow hurting us when
04:21 the Republican option here is just to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that everything's
04:26 fine all in blind deference to oil and gas companies who fund their campaigns is just
04:30 kind of insane.
04:32 Brian Tyler Cohen, I love how you always say it straight.
04:35 Thank you.
04:36 Thank you for joining me.
04:37 [Music]