Maybe MSNBC really has changed Greta Van Susteren.
The former Fox News host did not pull any punches on Thursday as President Donald Trump and House Republicans prepared to make what she called a “premature” victory lap in the White House Rose Garden after passing a health care bill that is widely expected to fail in the Senate.
“Maybe I'm delusional, but I don't get this one at all,” Van Susteren told her new colleague Chris Matthews. “What is the celebration? It can’t pass in the Senate. It hasn't even gone to the Senate.” The idea that Republicans are “taking selfies of each other and high-fiving” did not make sense to her at all.
“It’s like claiming victory in a football game at the end of the first quarter or the half or something,” she continued. “For the life of me, I don't know why they put themselves in a position where they're clapping each other on the back for getting something halfway done. The American people want a product. We're not even there and it’s not even likely to be there. Now we have this picture, this bus ride, this big hoopla.”
Americans “want health care fixed, they want pre-existing problems taken care of,” she added. “I don't get this thing. This is a big show. It is fun for us, it’s exciting, we have a big bus going down Constitution avenue. For what? Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed.” Predicting the bill will “go kerplunk” in the Senate, Van Susteren asked, “Then what?”
“I agree,” Matthews said, chuckling in disbelief.
“This is not over. Usually you wait to celebrate until things are over,” Van Susteren said later. “Instead we have members of Congress taking selfies of each other in the Rose Garden. And they're clapping. I just think this is premature. If this were a done deal, they should celebrate.”
With that, President Trump made his dramatic entrance and declared victory.