MSNBC’s Morning Joe stooped to a new low on Monday morning when the assembled panel refused to condemn 2020 Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld’s insistence that President Donald Trump should be put to death because, in his mind, he’s committed treason for his conversations with the Ukrainian president.
Not only that, but Weld twice made this case while panelists Mike Barnicle, Mika Brzezinski, Elise Jordan Joe Scarborugh, and Michael Steele refused to push back along with fellow Trump challengers Mark Sanford and Joe Walsh. In Jordan’s case, she even inquired about how this would happen.
The three Trump challengers were there to discuss the growing trend of state Republican Parties canceling 2020 primaries so as to award the President an automatic victory. The segment began with former Trump fanboy Scarborough lamenting this problem, but Weld seemed inclined to use his time for other matters.
After briefly lamenting the canceled primaries, Weld laid out his case for why the President committed treason, which is punishable by death (click “expand”):
[T]hat's far from deepest dive crime that the President has committed here. He has now acknowledged in a single phone call right after he suspended $250 million of military aid to Ukraine, he called up the president of Ukraine and pressed him eight times to investigate Joe Biden who the President thinks is going to be running against him. Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election. It couldn't be clearer and that's not just undermining democratic institutions. That is treason. It's treason, pure and simple and the penalty for treason under the U.S. Code is death. That's the only penalty. The penalty on the Constitution is removal from office and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the President if he can work out a plea deal.
No panelist batted an eye to either interrupt or chastise Weld for his claim. Instead, Scarborough plowed ahead with Walsh, who pontificated about the need to impeach Trump and how those on the right must join his side or face political extinction.
Barnicle and Steele engaged with both Sanford and Walsh about the politics of axing state primaries, but all four also refused to condemn Weld’s deadly claim.
Instead, faux Republican Elise Jordan asked Weld about how convicting Trump of treason would happen:
Governor Weld, you went a little bit further than just impeachment in your prior comments And I just want to continue with that a bit. You said that Donald Trump has committed treason and the penalty for treason under American law is death. Do you — what's the legal framework here? Have you looked into this? What — how do you see this proceeding?
Weld then reiterated his point without hesitation or interruption (click “expand”):
Well, the legal framework is under the U.S. Code. The only penalty for treason is death. It’s spelled out in a statute. Under the Constitution as you know, grounds for removal from office, impeachment and removal from any federal office, are treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. We don't have to worry about bribery anymore although I think he’s committed that. We don't have to worry about other high crimes and misdemeanors although I think he’s committed many. He’s such a lawless man. We’ve got treason and we don’t have to dribble around the court. We can go right for the hoop....It's well past time for this guy, in my opinion, to be colloquial, to be carted off to save us all. He's daring us all to let him be totally lawless. He has no respect for the law. He doesn’t understand the law. He has no knowledge base under any issues. Why do we want this man as President of the United States? I don't get it and now the path is clear. It's a whole new level, and we have to count noses among the Republicans in the Senate and if they won't say this is a bridge too far for us, then....they have no chance at the ballot box next year, not just President Trump but those members of the Senate.
According to the Daily Caller’s Shelby Talcott, “MSNBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” As of this blog’s publication, a check of their Twitter feeds only found a Jordan retweet of fellow MSNBCer Mimi Rocah calling Weld’s comments “not helpful” and full of “unnecessary hyperbole.” During the show, Morning Joe’s account even tweeted video of Weld’s first nod to treason.
It’s a tiresome exercise, but one could safely assume if the shoes were on the other foot with this occurring on Fox News regarding a Democratic president, CNN would be running wall-to-wall coverage hour after hour with lectures from the CNN media team.
One could also assume CNN personalities ranging from Max Boot to Susan Hennessey to Ana Navarro to Samantha Vinograd would be brought on to suffer meltdowns about the danger that tens of millions of Americans who don’t share their views pose to America.
Just like with their leftist allies, CNN wouldn’t have standards if it weren’t for double standards.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Morning Joe on September 23, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
September 23, 2019
8:27 p.m. EasternMIKA BRZEZINSKI: President Trump's approval rating is at or below 45 percent in 10 of the states he won in 2016. That's according to Gallop. Those states include Texas, Iowa, Georgia, Florida, Ohio and Arizona. Arizona is among a handful of states that has scrapped its 2020 Republican presidential primary. Over the weekend, Alaska became the latest to join that group when that state's Republican Party passed a rule stating a primary would, “would serve no useful purpose because Donald Trump is president.” The three Republican challengers to President Trump recently banded together to write an op-ed for The Washington Post warning why canceling GOP primaries is a critical mistake, and the three candidates join us now. Former Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois, former Congressman and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina and former Governor Bill Weld of Massachusetts.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Governor, let's begin with you. It's rich, is it not that Donald Trump spent the entire 2016 campaign first whining about the Republican primaries being rigged against him by insiders and then complaining that Hillary Clinton's Democratic primary was rigged against Bernie Sanders and yet here he is working furiously, Governor Weld, working furiously to actually have primary elections cancelled and wiped off the book and him been declared the winner without one person being able to vote in those states.
BILL WELD: Well, obviously, canceling primaries undermines democratic institutions and democratic elections, but that's far from deepest dive crime that the President has committed here. He has now acknowledged in a single phone call right after he suspended $250 million of military aid to Ukraine, he called up the president of Ukraine and pressed him eight times to investigate Joe Biden who the President thinks is going to be running against him. Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election. It couldn't be clearer and that's not just undermining democratic institutions. That is treason. It's treason, pure and simple and the penalty for treason under the U.S. Code is death. That's the only penalty. The penalty on the Constitution is removal from office and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the President if he can work out a plea deal. [CHUCKLING]
SCARBOROUGH: Congressman Joe Walsh. Do you agree?
JOE WALSH: Yeah, Joe, this isn't complicated. I begin where you ended five or ten minutes ago. Donald Trump needs to be impeached, period. As Bill Weld just said, he told a foreign leader two months ago to interfere in our 2020 election. He needs to be impeached. He has obstructed justice. In 2016, he encouraged and welcomed Russian interference in our election. He is a king. He is a would-be dictator. This isn't complicated. 2020 is a referendum on Trump. It's not about any issue. It's not about the debt. It's not about tariffs. It's about this man who is unfit, this man who is a clear and present danger to this country. If my party, the Republican Party, continues their cowardly silence, the party will be dead after 2020.
MIKE BARNICLE: So, Governor Sanford, you’ve just heard Governor Weld indicate that he feels it is treason. You heard Joe talk about the misgivings about what he’s doing every day as President. So my question to you is why so many of your former colleagues in the house of representatives and governors, Republicans governor, around the country who you know, Republicans who you know, why do they sell their souls to silence rather than standing up for the United States of America?
MARK SANFORD: Well, the obvious, the name of the game is staying in the game for a lot of people in politics and so everybody is drawing their own line in terms of where they are on that particular debate. I think you know where the three of us are. I would go back simply to the op-ed which is at the end of the day, holding elections — holding or not holding elections is the key to making a democracy in a republic work. The idea of the Republican Party now being the party about disenfranchisement in terms of voter involvement I think is a really bad signal to be sending. I think this idea of disbanding elections is also bad just on the standpoint of producing better candidates. I mean, the idea of football teams in South Carolina, saying tell you what — we’re not going to practice this week. We’re not going to scrimmage. We're just going to save our energy for the game on Friday night would be viewed as crazy by a coach and yet that's exactly what the Republican Party is doing in South Carolina where they said we’re just going to hold on to everything and just wait until next November. Well, guess what? You’ve got a whole lot of candidates on the Democratic side scrimmaging and playing awfully hard getting ready for that game come November next.
MICHAEL STEELE: Governor, Michael Steele here. Good to see all of your gentlemen and I want to throw it on the table, but starting with Governor Sanford. The RNC, coupled now with the various states to the point you were just making decided to start to shut down the primary process, are you or all three of you prepared to take legal action, bring some legal recourse to the conversation on behalf of yourselves and the primary process? How citizens are being disenfranchised from the process on a larger scale by beginning to shut down the effort to go out and vote for anyone of you. So, it's a competitive process.
SANFORD: Sure. I actually held a series of press conferences across South Carolina on last Monday and I talked about wait a minute, not only is it about disenfranchisement, this is ultimately about something a whole lot simpler which is it doesn't make any sense. I mean, in the world of politics, if you have a chance to pick up an alleged 80 percent or 90 percent win which is what the Trump campaign suggests they have in terms of lead, you take it, particularly if it is the first in the south primary, which South Carolina is. Instead, they’re canceling it? It just doesn’t make any sense. It says to a lot of folks that Trump supporters are a mile wide and an inch deep and so, yes, I’m going to look at any and all legal options to answer your question.
WALSH: Hey Michael, to answer your question, Michael, yes, we are going to fight this with everything we've got. This is about disenfranchisement. This isn't Russia. This isn't China. You just can't cancel elections in the United States of America, but that's what Donald Trump is doing and make no mistake about it, Michael, this is Donald Trump telling the Republican Party bosses what to do because the Republican Party bosses, the Republican Party establishment, all they want to do is wash their dictator's feet every doggone day. Go back to what I said before. This President needs to be impeached. That's on the table right now. The Republican Party needs to have the courage to do what's right.
ELISE JORDAN: Governor Weld, you went a little bit further than just impeachment in your prior comments And I just want to continue with that a bit.
WELD: Sure.
JORDAN: You said that Donald Trump has committed treason and the penalty for treason under American law is death. Do you — what's the legal framework here? Have you looked into this? What — how do you see this proceeding?
WELD: Well, the legal framework is under the U.S. Code. The only penalty for treason is death. It’s spelled out in a statute. Under the Constitution as you know, grounds for removal from office, impeachment and removal from any federal office, are treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. We don't have to worry about bribery anymore although I think he’s committed that. We don't have to worry about other high crimes and misdemeanors although I think he’s committed many. He’s such a lawless man. We’ve got treason and we don’t have to dribble around the court. We can go right for the hoop. But this President has been trying to cancel this election for months. He tried to cancel the New Hampshire first in the nation primary. Well, that went over like a lead balloon in New Hampshire because they're not stupid. So, the people in New Hampshire were really the first ones to stand up to President Trump this year, but the time has come. It's well past time for this guy, in my opinion, to be colloquial, to be carted off to save us all. He's daring us all to let him be totally lawless. He has no respect for the law. He doesn’t understand the law. He has no knowledge base under any issues. Why do we want this man as President of the United States? I don't get it and now the path is clear. It's a whole new level, and we have to count noses among the Republicans in the Senate and if they won't say this is a bridge too far for us, then they really as — as Congressman Walsh said, I totally agree, they have no chance at the ballot box next year, not just President Trump but those members of the Senate.
SCARBOROUGH: All right. Mark Sanford, William Weld, and Joe Walsh.
BRZEZINSKI: Wow.
SCARBOROUGH: Thank you all so much for being with us.
WELD: Thank you, Joe and Mika.
BRZEZINSKI: I really appreciate this joint interview.
