During MSNBC’s hysteria-heavy afternoon show Deadline: White House on Wednesday, two guests of host and failed former Republican Nicolle Wallace diagnosed America as now in the midst of a “national emergency” and on the verge of a “constitutional crisis” that translates into people needing to “take to the streets” to protest the Trump administration’s firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
HBO’s The Circus co-host and MSNBC political analyst John Heilemann repeatedly admitted to Wallace that Sessions’s firing was “not surprising,” but he simultaneously stated his dismay and fear with the fact that “it happened today.”
Heilemann fretted that he need “to be at 30,000 feet about this one thing, which is the President is moving rapidly to try to shut down the Mueller probe” because there’s “[n]o ambiguity about what he's doing here” even though, again, “he’s wanted to do that for a long time.”
As our friends at Grabien flagged down, Heilemann then demanded that “we not mince words about this or have clarity and ambiguity about what's happening” with Trump “moving with, the day after the midterm elections, to maximize the period where he can act while we are in a period where Republicans control both branches of Congress.”
“We're hurdling toward the constitutional crisis we've all been worried about for the last two years. We are on the brink of it right now and I don’t have any — if would not surprise me that we'd find ourselves in the middle of it in the next 48 hours,” Heilemann concluded.
For all the media condemnations against the GOP and the President for supposedly winning by scaring people, the media certainly should choose their words carefully when it comes to fear-mongering with words like “constitutional crisis.”
Even more ironically, former Holder Justice Department aide Matthew Miller lashed out about what he deemed issues of oversight at the DOJ. He fretted to Wallace that “the problem is [Democrats] don’t take control of these committees until January” so the DOJ could be totally remade and the Mueller probe stifled before then.
Miller continued, uncorking more hysteria that Wednesday’s move has triggered “a national emergency” which one couldn’t “overstate the gravity of the situation and it's incumbent upon everyone in public life to respond to this like it's an emergency.”
The former Obama official also suggested that people “take to the streets” over what’s taken place (click “expand”):
This isn't like all of Trump's — Trump’s other attempts to interfere with the investigation. You know, he’s reached over and found he one person among dozens of political appointees at the Department of Justice who has a preordained hostility — public — publicly stated hostility to the investigation. I think for — for, you know, people in Congress, they need to step up and object to this. I think, you know, people — the broad public, this is the time to maybe take to the streets and say this is not what you expected out of the government and then I just have a message for people at the Justice Department. You know, there are a number of senior political appointees at the Justice Department. Republican appointees who believe in the rule of law and believe in this investigation, believe in what Bob Mueller and Rod Rosenstein has done. The country needs to hear from them in the next few days. This is a crisis moment. They need to step forward and make their voices heard in mass resignations if necessary to say they just will not stand for this abuse of the Justice Department’s independence.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on November 7, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
November 7, 2018
4:18 p.m. EasternJOHN HEILEMANN: Although in some sense also not surprising, I think the thing so jarring — what's jarring about this is not — we've talked for months about the fact Sessions is going to go some time after the midterms. It's that it happened today.
NICOLLE WALLACE: Right.
HEILEMANN: And that, I — something that did not surprise me. I think I said on the air on various times that if Trump woke up the day after the election feeling either emboldened or threatened —
WALLACE: Or both.
HEILEMANN: — or in this case, as it turns out, both. That's what you see here with this sort of split decision which is not really as much a split decision as people say, but he feels — he feels clearly emboldened by the enhanced majorities in the Senate. He feels clearly threatened by the fact Democrats have taken back the house and make no mistake. I mean, everything that was just said, all of our smart analysts and reporters said really smart things. I just want to be at 30,000 feet about this one thing —
WALLACE: Please.
HEILEMANN: — which is the President is moving rapidly to try to shut down the Mueller probe. No ambiguity about what he's doing here. It has been clear he's wanted to do that for a long time. He wanted to wait until the election to see exactly what the political make-up was going to be and what the threats were and what the latitude would be with the Senate and now he knows. So very quickly he's moving towards not just the things we're seeing, firing, again, be clear about this. Firing the attorney general, resigning at your request is firing. He fired you. He just fired Jeff Sessions and he's installed a lackey against all precedent that the Deputy Attorney General should be the acting Attorney General now.
WALLACE: Correct.
HEILEMANN: That's why you have a deputy is so if the Attorney General leaves, you step up into that job. The only reason that’s not happening is because he wants to not have Rod Rosenstein overseeing the Mueller probe anymore. These things — can we not mince words about this or have clarity and ambiguity about what's happening and if you understand that and the obvious urgency that Trump is moving with, the day after the midterm elections, to maximize the period where he can act while we are in a period where Republicans control both branches of Congress, we — there is, again, to be clear, there’s no ambiguity here. We're hurdling toward the constitutional crisis we've all been worried about for the last two years. We are on the brink of it right now and I don't have any — if would not surprise me that we'd find ourselves in the middle of it in the next 48 hours.
(....)
4:29 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEW MILLER: And I think the problem is they don't take control of these committees until January and if I have a concern here, it's that by January, it might be too late. You know, once they have control of these committees they can subpoena witnesses, they make Matt Whitaker come up and testify, they ask for documents, but by then, he may have already moved to shut this investigation down or, you know, to decline, you know, new investigative steps for Mueller. Maybe put a subpoena in a drawer. I — you know, the timing of this is so suspect because we're so close to the end of the Mueller investigation. Whitaker coming in right now might be at the critical time to stop the key steps that need to happen. Indictments or referral to Congress from taking place. I really do think this is a national emergency. I don't think you can overstate the gravity of the situation and it's incumbent upon everyone in public life to respond to this like it's an emergency. This isn't like all of Trump's — Trump’s other attempts to interfere with the investigation. You know, he’s reached over and found he one person among dozens of political appointees at the Department of Justice who has a preordained hostility — public — publicly stated hostility to the investigation. I think for — for, you know, people in Congress, they need to step up and object to this. I think, you know, people — the broad public, this is the time to maybe take to the streets and say this is not what you expected out of the government and then I just have a message for people at the Justice Department. You know, there are a number of senior political appointees at the Justice Department. Republican appointees who believe in the rule of law and believe in this investigation, believe in what Bob Mueller and Rod Rosenstein has done. The country needs to hear from them in the next few days. This is a crisis moment. They need to step forward and make their voices heard in mass resignations if necessary to say they just will not stand for this abuse of the Justice Department’s independence.
