Call them 'Morning Sisyphus '. . . The cruel king of Greek mythology was forced to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down, requiring him to repeat the labor every day for eternity.
And so it is for the cast of Morning Joe. No matter how they might have denounced President Trump the day before, as the sun rises they are forced to begin yet again their labor of trying to take Trump down.
Today, doing his part, Donny Deutsch put his shoulder to the stone. His notion was that President Trump's travails have rendered him "pathetic" and "defanged." And whereas Trump was once a "malignant cancer," he is now a "benign cancer."
Here's Donny:
Morning Joe
12/13/18
7:14am ET
DONNY DEUTSCH: If you think back about a year ago, and you describe brand attributes, those are the words we use to describe brand, you would have said "strong, authoritative, in-charge, nasty, intimidating." And now when you look at him, as each day goes by, starting particularly with the [midterm] election, you see him as kind of pathetic and defanged and confused and goofy. It's the first time in his life he's not dealing from strength
. . .
And you see it. And he's vulnerable and he's weak. And there's a pathetic quality to him and it feels like a confused quality to him. And as this continues to be there will be nobody around him of any consequence, and even when there has [sic] been people around with consequence, it doesn't matter.
. . .And he's gone from malignant to benign. That's the best way -- to me, he was always a cancer and he's gone from a malignant cancer to a benign cancer. The cancer's still there, but he does not have the toxic effect, he does not have the ability to impact, he does not have the ability to force his will on anything. And I think the weaker he seems and the weaker he is in reality, the more the circus is going to take on a surreal tone.[
