Dan Pfeiffer

So instead of giving billions of dollars to one criminal...

They're going to give $1.776 billion, which is so clever, to an untold number of criminals, many of whom committed violent offenses, assaulting the Capitol and assaulting police officers.

It is a move so bad that even Republican senators can figure out that it's bad politically.

I mean, it's pretty clear what happened here is Trump wanted his money.

I think someone was able to convince him that him directly taking the money was probably a bridge too far politically.

And plus, he's made so many other billions from so many other crooked schemes that he could take a pass on this one.

But he obviously wasn't going to let it go.

And they were facing this deadline because there was a court-opposed deadline.

So the day before the court-opposed deadline, they hatched together a poorly thought-out plan that they thought would appeal to Trump.

Right.

It's not as bad as Trump getting the money, although that is actually debatable.

But it would still fit with his need for revenge.

And it's like perfect Trump.

These are my people.

I'm going to help my people.

I'm going to hook up my people.

And they didn't think through any of the consequences.

They just assumed every Republican would be for it.

And they, as you said, they stepped on a rake.

It's like a very obvious, very clear, very politically damaging rake.