MSNBC political analyst Ronald Reagan Jr. stepped up his attacks on President Trump Thursday, telling MSNBC's resident blowhard Chris Matthews that Trump isn’t “behaving like a president” and that there’s “good reason” to question his mental state. Reagan, who claimed that Trump is “unfit for office” during an appearance on the show back in May, said that it’s “extraordinary” that the president’s mental health is a subject for public debate:
“Think about how extraordinary it is that we're even having this conversation," Reagan said. "You and I have differences with various presidents, I've been very tough on George W. Bush on torture and things like that, but we're actually talking about the president's very sanity here, and doing it in a serious way."
Last week, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker questioned Trump’s mental state and called for “radical change” at the White House during a briefing with reporters, angering the president’s allies. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the attacks by saying they "didn't dignify" a response.
But Reagan echoed Corker’s remarks, and heaped on a few more criticisms of his own.
"We're really, genuinely worried, and with good reason," Reagan said. "Very sober people are worried that this man is simply unfit for office, characterologically, emotionally, mentally. He does not have the stability, it seems."
He also described the president’s behavior as “pathological.”
"You can't control a president who is pathological in his behavior," Reagan said. "It's not that he's just not behaving like a normal president does, he's not behaving as a normal grown-up does."
According to Reagan, Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he doesn’t have the “human instinct” necessary to be a successful president – a deficiency apparent in his remarks to the Boy Scouts of America, as well as his response to the attack in Charlottesville, Va. earlier this month, when a white nationalist demonstrator rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one.
"He doesn't have the sort of human instincts, whether it's Charlottesville, or something else, the Boy Scouts for God's sake, talking about going out on a yacht with a lot of women," Reagan added. "The guy with a lot of money, to the Boy Scouts, who does this? What adult would stand there and say that?"
Attacks on Trump’s mental health are increasing in frequency as the president is threatening to upset the market apple cart and force a government shutdown – and possibly a technical default on the US’s debt – unless Congress includes funding for his promised border wall in the next US budget. What observers are most confused - and frustrated - about, is that unlike Chris Matthews, Trump is actually playing hardball with both parties in Congress, although as numerous recent examples have demonstrated, there remains a vast chasm between Trump's bombastic words and actual deeds.
