MSNBC’s Defrancesco: Trump Muslim Question ‘Premeditated,’ ‘Stoking’ the Xenophobia

MSNBC’s Victoria Defrancesco called GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s Obama Muslim question “premeditated” on Saturday’s “Up with Steve Kornacki.”

She reasoned that Trump was trying to get fellow GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina “off the front page” and that Trump knew he was “stoking” the xenophobia.

“I think [Trump] is speaking to a very visceral anger here in the Republican Party. I’m going to throw out a totally different interpretation, in some ways Trump is premeditated and in some ways Donald Trump is saying, ‘I got Carly Fiorina off the front page and I got everyone talking about the Muslim issue and the birther issue going again.”

Defrancesco added, “Trump knew he was stoking to company xenophobic feeling within the Republican party, whether it’s anti-Mexican, now it’s anti-Muslim and his campaign feeds off of that anger.”