Wow! Veteran political strategist Mary Matalin is not just “confident” that Donald Trump is going to win, she thinks he has an 85-90% chance of winning. And even that is conservative compared to the 100% chance she originally claimed during her appearance on today’s With All Due Respect.
Note that Matalin is not a rabid Trump partisan. To the contrary, she quit the Republican party in May, and says that rather than having a dog in the race, she has, in Trump, merely a “mini-puppy.” Matalin took an amusing shot at her husband, Dem strategist James Carville. When John Heilemann said he could only imagine the fights she was having with him, Mary mockingly answered “who? Who? Is he my . . . go-to guy in politics? I don’t think so.”
MARK HALPERIN: We talk about the Quinnipiac polls showin Trump within striking distance in the four states he needs to win to get to 270 probably. Just your general handicapping of the race now: does Trump have a 20% chance of winning, 25%, 15%?MARY MATALIN: I think he has a 100% chance of winning. And as you know, I’m –HALPERIN: 100% chance, meaning you think he’s definitely going to win? You’re positive Trump is going to win?MATALIN: I’m confident he’s going to win. The race is closing, despite Mrs. Clinton’s dumping hundreds of millions of dollars, relative to his $4 million or whatever.HALPERIN: You think Hillary Clinton has a 0% chance of winning?MATALIN: All right, let’s say 10%, 15%. I just think he’s going to win! The closing of the races, the turnout that y’all mentioned, whether or not he has a turnout operation as you mentioned, the RNC does, and those Senate race races particularly in those states are turning out every cell under every rock. Ohio, very important, Portman’s back up. Toomey will have a good operation. North Carolina, he’s up. So he’s coming back in the right places, he’s in the margin of error in about 10 of these states. Between the RNC and the Senate races and the down-ballot races pushing out, people are nervous about the House now–they don’t need to be. That will be his turn-out operation.HALPERIN: I guess we just spend the rest of the time asking about the Trump cabinet.JOHN HALPERIN: Really, no kidding: by a 90% chance of winning.MATALIN: I don’t, as you know, I have a mini-puppy in this race. He’s not really my guy, I’m intending to vote for him. He’s not a conservative, he’s not a Republican, but he’s most importantly not a Progressive. What he is, is that he has an action for bias [sic: presumably ‘bias for action.’] And what conservatives and the Republicans have been, is James 2:17, they’ve been faith with no action. So that’s dead. He’s a man of action I guess….MATALIN: She has a turn-out operation as we just discussed. The mechanics for one aren’t at RNC level. But she does not have something he has that’s critical, more critical than an operation, and that’s enthusiasm. So yes, all right, I’ll say Pennsylvania then. Yes, he has to win Pennsylvania. New Mexico, Nevada, Iowa.HALPERIN: You think is going to win New Mexico?MATALIN: I think he’s going to win states like that where he is within the margin of error currently in not just outlier polls, but these polls too.HEILMANN: I just can’t imagine the kind of fights you’re getting in with your husband these days.MATALIN: Who? Who? Do you think I — is he my dispositive, go-to guy in politics? I don’t think so.
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