The freak out over the leaking of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade permeated all the cable channels and networks on Monday night and Tuesday morning. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell offered possibly the most petulant, whining about the 2000 election.
O’Donnell opened his show by ranting, “Minority government! Minority-ruled government, and the Supreme Court is the most incredible exemplar of that. You have these judges, appointed to the Supreme Court by two presidents, who did not win the most votes in that presidential election.”
Spewing anger, he continued, “George W. Bush, appointed the justice who wrote this opinion, he did not win the most votes in his presidential election, but he won the Electoral College.”
O’Donnell found additional blame for the possible fall of Roe, singling out the United States Senate:
And then you have Donald Trump, appointing three of these deciding justices, he did not come close to winning the most votes, but he got the presidency in this country because of this capacity for minority rule in our government, which is what the United States Senate is about every day of every year.
If Roe is overturned, MSNBC may be hardest hit. On Morning Joe, the hosts called the potential decision “illegitimate” and a “nightmare scenario.” On Monday night, they compared it to banning interracial marriage.
A transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
The Last Word
5/2/2022
10:00 PMRACHEL MADDOW: It’s a straight line from this ruling, not only to banning abortion instantly and potentially nationally, but to also preventing Americans from accessing birth control, in a ruling that is argued along the same lines as the established presidents that are starting on this opinion. It’s a fundamentally different world if this happens.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: And included in this fundamentally different world, is the other part of what we’re experiencing tonight, it is minority government, minority-ruled government, and the Supreme Court is the most incredible exemplar of that. You have these judges, appointed to the Supreme Court by two presidents, who did not win the most votes in that presidential election. George W. Bush, appointed the justice who wrote this opinion, he did not win the most votes in his presidential election, but he won the Electoral College. And then you have Donald Trump, appointing three of these deciding justices, he did not come close to winning the most votes, but he got the presidency in this country because of this capacity for minority rule in our government, which is what the United States Senate is about every day of every year.
More people vote for Democrats for the United States Senate, but Republicans end up either in control of it with fewer people voting for them, for those seats, or as we see now in the 50/50 position, this is a minority-controlled government. This is the product of that.
...
O’DONNELL: And let’s consider what this Republican-controlled court does not respect. They do not respect the in effect Republican controlled court the wrote Roe v. Wade. It was a 7-2 decision 49 years ago, and, five, five of the deciding justices in favor of Roe versus Wade were Republican- appointed Supreme Court justices.
And in the last week or so, there’s been a very intense discussion especially in the world of Twitter about how much the Democratic Party has moved to the left in recent years or how much the Republican Party has moved to the right, there is no better demonstration about the extreme direction towards the right that the Republican Party is moved, when you look at the five Republican appointed justices in 1973, who voted for Roe versus Wade in a total of seven justices.
And then you see these five tonight, possibly six in the end put five as of tonight, voting to repeal it completely and, insulting as much as they possibly can justices who decided it.
...
WENDY DAVIS: And I know it may sound completely dramatic to say that, but I can assure you, there are lawmakers here and around this country, that’s their next goal. And that’s where we are headed.
O’DONNELL: Yes, I don’t think there’s any language in dealing with what we’re learning tonight that is overly dramatic. For example, the law that Samuel Alito is probably upholding in this decision requires -- makes it impossible for a 12-year-old girl who has been raped by her father, makes it impossible for her to have an abortion. That’s what this does.
Samuel Alito and a majority of the Supreme Court and all elected Republicans in Washington want 12 -- 13 year old girls to be forced to carry pregnancies to term if -- no matter who has impregnated them, including their fathers including any incest victim. This is what these people are saying should be the lives of these children. These children should have absolutely no options. Cecile Richards, you’ve known this about their rhetoric for decades, but now it’s a reality, now they’re saying in writing to children, if you are pregnant as a child you must, you must have that baby.
