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Home > On CBS, Yahoo News's Matt Bai Invokes George Wallace in Trump Discussion

On CBS, Yahoo News's Matt Bai Invokes George Wallace in Trump Discussion

By Brad Wilmouth | December 22, 2015 | 5:45 PM EST
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Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's CBS This Morning, Yahoo News political columnist Matt Bai brought up 1960s era segregationist Alabama Democratic governor and former presidential candidate George Wallace during a discussion of Donald Trump's popularity. Host Norah O'Donnell raised President Barack Obama accusing Trump of "exploiting the fears of blue-collar men" as she posed:

Do you think it's interesting that the President addressed this yesterday in that NPR interview saying essentially that Donald Trump is exploiting the fears of blue-collar men in particular?

Bai began his response:

Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, the President has said this, I think the President feels the need to address it in a sense because it has been the dominant factor that we've talked about in the race. And it's a population of the electorate that's been clearly strengthened.

The Yahoo News national political columnist lumped George Wallace in with "decades of conservative politics" as he added:

You know, this goes back for decades in conservative politics, decades in America. I covered Ross Perot. You remember that, Norah. I covered, you know, Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. There is a very dissatisfied conservative piece of the electorate, you know. It goes back really as far as George Wallace.

I think its been exceptionally activated, strengthened, and intensified by the Trump campaign because he speaks to that part of the electorate and manipulates those emotions in a way very few professional politicians or officeholders in the last couple of decades have been willing to do.

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2016 Presidential
Conservatives & Republicans
Race Issues
Racism
Yahoo!
CBS
CBS This Morning
Norah O'Donnell
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
George Wallace

Source URL: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brad-wilmouth/2015/12/22/cbs-yahoo-newss-matt-bai-invokes-george-wallace-trump-discussion