On Saturday's AM Joy on MSNBC, during discussions of President Donald Trump and the Russia investigation, not only did MSNBC justice analyst Matthew Miller dismiss Republicans as being in a "right-wing coccoon" that is rewarded by Fox News for "bad behavior," but terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance likened Trump to the "evil" Darth Vader licking the boots of Vladimir Putin as the Emperor.
At 10:40 a.m. Eastern, after host Joy Reid brought up accounts of Trump and Putin joking about the Russia investigation, Nance went over the top as he responded:
My first thought reminded me of a classic film called Star Wars where Darth Vader kneels at the foot of the Emperor. And you know Darth Vader is evil, but so the Emperor is a higher evil power. And what we saw was a classic example of utter obsequiousness, slavish devotion and boot-licking by Donald Trump.
He added:
It was a disgraceful display that he would go on there and literally talk to the person who attacked the United States and the fundamentals of our democracy and praised him and worked with him to call this a hoax. Worse than that, he dropped a hint that very soon Russian sanctions will be lifted.
A bit later, Reid turned to Miller and brought up congressional Republican reaction to President Trump as she posed:
Republicans -- let's talk about them for a moment because they've shown no sense of shame here. Even the ones who claim they care about Russian interference, they're not going to do anything about it. Is there anything about the reputational damage that William Barr has done to himself that moves anyone on the Republican side to think that there's any cost?
She added: "I mean, John Yoo got a great gig -- got a great deal after writing the torture memo. It worked out for him."
Miller -- a former Obama administration official -- blamed Fox News for Republicans allegedly behaving badly as he responded:
I don't think Bill Barr cares about the reputational damage because he doesn't see it as reputational damage. I think he and the entire Republican party sort of live in this right-wing coccoon now where they're rewarded for bad behavior by positive coverage on Fox News and positive coverage on Breitbart. And they just don't really respond to the same kinds of incentives that have kept politicians in check from behaving this way in the past.
He then pined for Democrats to pursue a successful strategy to get Republican cooperation in going after President Trump as the MSNBC analyst added:
Democrats don't have a strong hand to play here. They could impeach Bill Barr, but it's somewhat of a feckless option. He's not going to be removed by the Senate, so they're doing basically the only thing they can, which is to go to court and build the strongest record they have to try to pull documents out of the Justice Department by going to court, and then hopefully at some point the political price is so high that Republicans, you know, are moved to act.
