David Bossie: Guatemalan president's 'disrespect' for VP Harris's 'pandering' was 'palpable'

The Guatemalan president's treatment of visiting Vice President Kamala Harris illustrates world leaders' lack of respect for the Biden administration, according to David Bossie, president of Citizens United.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei "lectured" Harris on the Biden administration's border policy and told her to get her mask from the podium and put it back on, Bossie remarked on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast.

"For him to have lectured her about 'your policy created this problem' on the one hand, and then on the other hand he makes her put on a mask — did you see that? — he makes her stop," said Bossie, Donald Trump's deputy campaign manager in 2016. "And as they're walking away from their bilateral press conference, which is normal, he makes her put on a mask. He sent her back to her podium to get her mask and put it on."

"The level of disrespect, to be quite honest with you, of their president and our vice president was palpable because he knew that she was pandering, and he treated her as such," Bossie said. "And you're exactly right, he called her out. And for her to say, with such conviction and passion and zeal that, 'Stay home, don't come, don't come' — Joe Biden was on the presidential campaign trail telling everyone to come. Kamala Harris was telling everybody to come. And now all of a sudden, they realize, 'Uh oh.'"

Bossie said the pressure of the border crisis may cause the Biden administration to continue building the wall.

"It wouldn't be surprising to me if all of a sudden, without any announcement, some of that wall continues to get built," he said "You're gonna see, maybe, some walls going up. And they're gonna blame, 'Oh, well, we had contracts. And we had no choice, right? We had no choice, because they were already paid. We had the contract. So ... they had to finish it.'"

He also mentioned how other world leaders, like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, view the Biden administration.

"I think the Merkels of the world, they're saying, 'Joe Biden's driving those people right back into the arms of Donald J. Trump,'" the veteran political operative speculated. "And that is going to give him an opportunity to run again in 2024, if he so chooses. That's part of the equation that the Biden folks aren't even considering. The American people go to the gas pump every day. They're watching the news of the border crisis. They're seeing Israel, in just being attacked — everything that they said wouldn't happen, right? 'Put the adults back — the so-called adults back in charge.'"

Bossie discussed Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) possibly being driven to the Republican Party by his fellow Democrats as he is planning on voting against H.R. 1, a Democrat bill that will federalize elections.

"One of the most important people in the country today is Joe Manchin," he said. "And I think Joe Manchin has to be thinking about changing parties. They are driving him — it's very much like Ronald Reagan. If you remember Reagan's famous line, 'I didn't leave the party; the party left me.' ... I think, if you're Senator Manchin right now, that's kind of what you feel like. You feel like the party is now the AOC-Tlaib party, not the party of John F. Kennedy.

"I think Joe Manchin is being attacked with — he's being called a racist by Democrats ... If he changes parties, the world changes, and Biden's administration is over. It's effectively over because you go from Senate Majority Leader Schumer to Senate Majority Leader McConnell, and nothing in the Biden administration gets done, nothing, between now and Election Day, and that is a great thing."

"I hope they continue their attacks on [Manchin]," Bossie continued. "Because he is not somebody to just shy away from that and cower. He is going to, I think, react in a way that they won't like. So he's a very commonsense person. He's from West Virginia, very commonsense, blue-collar guy. And by the way, it's gonna be hard for him to win with a Biden on the ticket, right? As a Democrat in 2024, he has to think about his future, and whether he wants to run again as a Democrat in a state that is not exactly hospitable to Democrats statewide."

Bossie also talked about his position as chairman of the Republican presidential debate commission and the ideas he has for changing the GOP presidential primary debates.

"We could have a debate where we could have Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum," he suggested. "Three former presidential candidates who really know the business, understand their TV personalities of themselves, and they know how to act ... and they got the command of the facts and the issues, but they also know how to ask questions. And it would be just interesting to see former candidates asked ... There's so many things like that, that have never been tried before."