33: Timothy L. O'Brien on the Methodology and Madness of Trump
Politics War Room with James Carville & Al Hunt
Politicon
4.7 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2020
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Few people have as deep and intimate an understanding of who Donald Trump is as a person as Bloomberg Opinion executive editor Timothy L. O'Brien. Not only has O'Brien written an entire biography of the man in his book "TrumpNation: "The Art of Being The Donald," he was even sued by Trump for libel for giving a true account of the scope of the president's financial worth. In due course, Timothy has actually become an astute observer of the Trump brand, peering beyond the fabricated persona to see what really lies beneath. Plus, Al and James discuss just what might happen if things don't go well for Trump in November.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to 2020 Politics War Room with James Carville. We're down in New Orleans. |
| 0:10.6 | I'm Al Hunn here in Washington. We are proud partners with the Sine Institute at American |
| 0:16.0 | University. We again have a great show with someone who I consider the foremost expert |
| 0:21.7 | on Donald Trump. But first, don't forget to subscribe to 2020 Politics War Room on Apple |
| 0:27.0 | Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. James down in New Orleans, |
| 0:33.5 | you're doing okay? You're doing pretty good. We got a lot of rain down here. I'll tell |
| 0:36.7 | you that. Wow. Well, I just hope you don't have the big storm. You don't need that. |
| 0:40.6 | That's the most sure. We do not. I'll repeat. We do not need it all water. |
| 0:46.3 | James, I was fortunate. I really mean that for six years to work with Tim O'Brien at Bloomberg. |
| 0:52.1 | He was the publisher of the editorial page at Bloomberg. It was a great hire when it |
| 0:57.5 | was made in 2013. I believe he'd been a star reporter and editor for The New York Times. |
| 1:02.2 | It was a path-breaking investigations editor for Huffington Post. But it became even more |
| 1:07.1 | golden a few years later. As Tim had written a terrific book about Donald Trump years earlier, |
| 1:13.2 | he then trounced Trump when the Donald suit him and went to court. And no one has more |
| 1:19.0 | knowledge or better understanding of Donald Trump and Tim O'Brien. Tim, really, it's |
| 1:23.7 | terrific to have you on this program. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm looking forward to talking to you guys. |
| 1:28.6 | Great. You know, Trump has had for all of his faults, he's had an almost Houdini-like |
| 1:34.6 | ability to escape from peril. Bankruptcy, scandals, indictments, impeachment. I'm pretty |
| 1:41.3 | sure. I'm more than pretty sure he's not going to escape from electoral defeat. And do you |
| 1:46.6 | think he realizes that or would any of the sicken-f |
| 1:46.7 | fence around him be afraid of telling that? He would never realize it, Al, because he's too |
| 1:54.6 | broken, I think, emotionally and psychologically to be reflective. You know, it's not a novel insight |
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