Plan A ain't looking so good. So let's go to Plan B! That seems to be Joe Scarborough's strategy when it comes to achieving his goal of seeing Donald Trump behind bars.
On Wednesday's Morning Joe, Scarborough admitted:
"Every Democrat -- people will get mad at me, I'm good with it -- every Democrat I talked to, every lawyer, evey DA, I was making calls through the afternoon, they were all disappointed by Bragg's -- by the actual indictment itself."
So if the substantive case against Trump is looking shaky, why not get Trump jailed for contempt of court?!
Scarborough went on a riff about how if any defendant he ever represented back in Florida had done "1/10th" of what Trump has done in terms of allegedly threatening the DA, the judge, and his family, the Florida judge would be threatening the defendant with jail: one day of jail for his first offense, and a week behind bars the second time around.
They talked about how the judge should stop Trump from talking -- if it can be characterized as inciting violence. John Heileman argued the judge might say "I can't shut that man down and throw him in jail just for defending himself. But, I also can't have him inciting violence out there. So what's the moment between now and then, where this judge, finally, the judge we saw yesterday finally says, starts to try to limit Trump's speech?"
Scarborough replied "the line was drawn yesterday, and it was crossed, it was crossed repeatedly....Donald Trump's boys were sending out pictures of the judge's daughter, and sending that all over the internet. Obviously, we all know, that's to intimidate her and to get threats to rise up against her. We've seen, this is how Trump world works."
"Trump's boys" apparently include Ron DeSantis. They sent out links on Twitter -- links that present a picture. They weren't actively "sending out pictures." They were linking to a story underlining Judge Juan Merchan's daughter was a staffer for Kamala Harris and Adam Schiff. That's not violent speech.
But Willie Geist agreed:
"On your first point, about threatening the judge and talking about the jury and everything else. If you are a mobster in lower Manhattan, if you're John Gotti or Sammy the Bull Gravano, and you start threatening judges, you go to jail! That's just the way it works.
This, from the same show that trashed Donald Trump's daughter: "she's not a professional and she's in completely over her head and you can see that from how other world leaders respond to her. And it's really sad and pitiful that the Trumps believe that nepotism on this great scale is acceptable for a country as great as this nation."
Note how Scarborough prefaced his mention that "every Democrat" he spoke with was disappointed by the indictment by saying that "people will get mad at me." Joe knows that his bread is buttered on the liberal side of the spectrum, and clearly was feeling uncomfortable in saying something he knew would upset people there.
Joe Scarborough reporting that every Democrat he's spoken with is "disappointed" by the Bragg indictment of Donald Trump, and suggesting that the judge threaten Trump with jail for contempt of court was sponsored in part by UnitedHealthCare and Chewy.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
4/5/23
6:15 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: I thought it was fascinating yesterday, every Democrat -- and again, people will get mad at me, I'm good with it. Every Democrat I talked to, every lawyer, every DA -- I was making calls throughout the afternoon, they were all disappointed by, by Bragg's -- by, by, by the, the actual indictment itself. They were all disappointed by the charging papers, and were saying so--boy, this is [unfinished sentence.]
So, you know, advantage Trump! Disadvantage, like, DeSantis and the entire Republican field. If Donald Trump was sane, if we were rational, he would have said. I'm going to go to bed with the win. But as we all know, Donald Trump can't keep his mouth shut.
. . .
JOHN HEILEMANN: Any judge is going to say, he's the former president, he's the leading candidate running for the nomination of one of the parties. I'm going to give him a wide berth. I can't shut that man down and throw him in jail just for defending himself. But, I also can't have him inciting violence out there.
So what's the moment between now and then, where this judge, finally, the judge we saw yesterday finally says, starts to try to limit Trump's speech?
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know, the line was drawn yesterday, and it was crossed, it was crossed repeatedly --
HEILEMANN: -- Immediately.
SCARBOROUGH: Even while the judge was saying that to him. Donald Trump's boys were sending out pictures of the judge's daughter, and, and, and sending that all over the internet. Obviously, we all know, that's to intimidate her and, and, and to get threats to rise up against her. We've seen, this is how Trump World works. We've seen it time and again I've seen it personally. so, they knew exactly what they were doing.
But then on top of that, you go, go one statement after another attacking the judge, attacking his wife, attacking the children, attacking all the other prosecutors, attacking the DA. Saying things that would lead to, to, to again, the possibility of violence, of threats. I guarantee you, all those people are, are, are facing an increase of security problems this morning/ And they knew exactly what they were doing. I would say the line's already been crossed!
And, and, and any judge, I just got, I've just got to say, we're all talking about no man is above the law. And, you know, these Trump people, they're saying oh, they're doing things to Donald Trump they'd never do to anybody esle. That is such a lie. They've given him such a wide berth already. Any judge -- if any defendant I took into any court in Pensacola, Florida, or in state or federal court there, had done one-tenth of this [slams hand on desk]!
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Exactly.
SCARBOROUGH: The judge would have already brought the hammer down. And he would say, do it again, I'm going to find you in contempt of court and you're going to be staying in the Escambia county jail tonight. Do you understand? And if you don't understand, counsel, do you want to explain to your client: one more false move, you're going to jail tonight. And then I'll let you out of jail, but you do it again I'm going to send you to jail for a week! That would happen in any case, anywhere in America.
So this whole thing about somehow, Donald Trump's being treated worse than anybody else. I wish I could say what that is. I will just say, that is rank horse manure. It's just pure garbage.
. . .
WILLIE GEIST: You know, on your first point, about threatening the judge and talking about the jury and everything else. If you are a mobster in lower Manhattan, if you're John Gotti or Sammy the Bull Gravano, and you start threatening judges, you go to jail! That's just the way it works.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah!
GEIST: It's just the way the system works. So, he shouldn't get a pass on that either.
