Progressive comedian and podcaster John Fugelsang joined the Friday installment of MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle to claim that President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech was an impeachable offense, presumably because Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg now supports him, and urged Democrats to file impeachment articles every day to show Democratic activists “we’re doing something.”
The topic of conversation was a New York Times report that said that Paramount and Trump are in settlement talks over the latter’s accusation that CBS’s 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris. The Times reported that company executives believe settling will make Trump more amenable to its proposed merger with Skydance.
With that as background, Fugelsang added, “It's— their bribes. I mean, these are bribes. You know, Donald Trump was eligible for impeachment one minute into his inaugural address for violating the Emoluments Clause. CBS has got a big merger coming up. This is a bribe. I mean, he had— Meta banned him from Facebook because his lies led to a terrorist attack on our Capitol, where cops were beaten for a lie. They banned him two years. He sued him for their own terms of service, and now they're apologizing to him. These are bribes. Let's see. You're right. We are turning into a Russian-style second-rate kleptocracy. And that's what's going on.”
If convincing or even pressuring Meta to do your bidding is an impeachable offense, what does that mean for all the Democrats who strong-armed Zuckerberg into banning Trump and forming the now-canceled relationship with the fact-checking companies? Apparently, concerns over devolving into Russian-style kleptocracy only go one way.
Later, Fugelsang wished that Democrats “will start introducing impeachment articles every week. When the GOP was trying to repeal Obamacare 70 times, we laughed at them. But what they were doing in their impoverished state was consolidating the base, fundraising, and getting their messaging across. It worked for them.”
He added, “I think Democrats should start having a different guy come out every week and introduce new articles of impeachment, just to inspire people and show them that we're doing something and let the record show for history we are fighting against this.”
Obviously, as things currently stand, those articles would go nowhere, but if Democrats take back the House in 2026, impeaching Trump a third time just to energize liberal voters and advance your own historical vanity project would tear the country apart.
Here is a transcript for the January 31 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
1/31/2025
11:40 PM ET
JOHN FUGELSANG: It's— their bribes. I mean, these are bribes. You know, Donald Trump was eligible for impeachment one minute into his inaugural address for violating the Emoluments Clause. CBS has got a big merger coming up. This is a bribe. I mean, he had— Meta banned him from Facebook because his lies led to a terrorist attack on our Capitol, where cops were beaten for a lie. They banned him two years. He sued him for their own terms of service, and now they're apologizing to him. These are bribes. Let's see. You're right. We are turning into a Russian-style second-rate kleptocracy. And that's what's going on.
…
I hope some of them will start introducing impeachment articles every week. When the GOP was trying to repeal Obamacare 70 times, we laughed at them. But what they were doing in their impoverished state was consolidating the base, fundraising, and getting their messaging across. It worked for them. I think Democrats should start having a different guy come out every week and introduce new articles of impeachment, just to inspire people and show them that we're doing something and let the record show for history we are fighting against this.
