During MSNBC’s special coverage of the Senate impeachment trial on Thursday, Jason Johnson, a favorite pundit of the left-wing cable channel, went on a tirade and warned viewers that an acquittal of President Trump would embolden him to “shut down voting” in the entire state of California ahead of the 2020 election.
Apparently having a vision of the future, Johnson, politics editor for TheRoot.com, feared: “Imagine Donald Trump deciding sometime in June, ‘Well, I heard this conspiracy theory that a lot of illegal immigrants voted in California, so I’ve decided that during the presidential election California has to undergo extreme vetting because we can’t trust their votes. We’re going to shut down voting in a state.’”
Johnson insisted it would happen: “This is literally the kind of thing he will do now. We’re not talking hypotheticals anymore.”
He pleaded with senators to convict the President:
So why people aren’t concerned, why people don’t realize that this is step one to actual autocracy? Not the theoretical one, not the one we talk about in class, but an actual president who will say, “This state’s votes don’t count. These people don’t have a right to vote. These people can’t come into the country.” That is what they’re allowing to happen here.
Johnson further wailed: “And I don’t understand how anyone cannot be terrified, not just angry, but literally terrified about what the future’s gonna bring.”
Ironically, at the start of his diatribe, Johnson denounced how “people spout nonsense” on “Fox News” and “Donald Trump always listens.”
What about the nonsense being spewed on MSNBC on a daily basis?
Here is a transcript of Johnson’s January 30 rant:
1:01 PM ET
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JASON JOHNSON [POLITICS EDITOR, THEROOT.COM]: And when people spout nonsense, whether it is Dershowitz or whether it’s Fox News, Donald Trump always listens. The scenario that he set up yesterday by basically saying the President can do what he wants. Imagine Donald Trump deciding sometime in June, “Well, I heard this conspiracy theory that a lot of illegal immigrants voted in California, so I’ve decided that during the presidential election California has to undergo extreme vetting because we can’t trust their votes. We’re going to shut down voting in a state.” This is literally the kind of thing he will do now. We’re not talking hypotheticals anymore.
And that’s the part that I disturbed me. For all of these people who are worried about their elections, we’re talking about the actual country. And anything that he’ll do to Joe Biden he will do to a senator, he’ll do to a senator in his own party. So why people aren’t concerned, why people don’t realize that this is step one to actual autocracy. Not the theoretical one, not the one we talk about in class, but an actual president who will say, “This state’s votes don’t count. These people don’t have a right to vote. These people can’t come into the country.” That is what they’re allowing to happen here. And I don’t understand how anyone cannot be terrified, not just angry, but literally terrified about what the future’s gonna bring.
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