MSNBC spent 93 percent of Tuesday discussing former President Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday and it appears some at the network think that number is too low. One of those voices belongs to contributor, professor, and former Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who joined Thursday’s edition of The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle to demand that Judge Aileen Cannon work with Chief Justice John Roberts to televise the trial.
His remarks also come as the network tries its hardest to discredit Cannon by doubting her ability to be impartial, so not only is MSNBC demanding the judge rule certain ways, but also that she consider their programming demands, “To me, the most important order, Steph, that she should be issuing is a request to the Chief Justice of the United States to get this televised.”
Katyal then tried to tie Cannon’s previous rulings to her aversion to broadcasting court proceedings, “When she had her hearings last year, she was scared to even have audio in the hearings and so we didn't get that, we just got a cold transcript and, you know, this is going to be one of the most important trials the nation's ever faced in a federal courtroom. That federal courtroom is paid for by American dollars, it is the people’s courtroom, and they should be able to see what is happening inside.”
Throughout this entire process, the media has defended the investigations into Trump by saying that nobody is above the law and yet here is Katyal making the case that Trump is so unique it warrants breaking decades of precedent.
Ruhle followed up by asking, “Given what you know about her Neil, what’s the likelihood that she would do that?”
Katyal confessed, “Well, I don't actually—I don’t know her, you know, and she is a, you know, confirmed federal judge, so I hope that she listens to argument and reason here, and understands, you know, just how important this is and I think the Chief Justice, who will ultimately make that call, you know, could—I could see him doing that.”
By “argument and reason,” Katyal really means “agree with me or I’ll seek to discredit you on national television.”
Wrapping up this particular section of the segment, Katyal reached for an analogy:
I think the nation’s had a really powerful example of the importance of televised trials, that you can do it well with the George Floyd case, the trial against Derek Chauvin, of which I was special prosecutor, and folks were really worried about that televised proceeding, but we all, as Americans, got to see it every day, what happened in that—, what happen in that courtroom, Minnesota had a flat ban, never happened before, they did it here, it worked, and it should work here again.
Katyal isn’t wrong to say this case will be “one of the most important” in the nation’s history, which is why it must be taken seriously and not turned into a sports-like spectacle with networks mashing together montages of the most “dramatic” moments to recap the proceedings for viewers that don’t watch cable news all day, every day and that are more geared towards attracting viewers than legal education.
This segment was sponsored by Citi.
Here is a segment for the June 15 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
6/15/2023
11:04 PM ET
NEAL KATYAL: To me, the most important order, Steph, that she should be issuing is a request to the Chief Justice of the United States to get this televised. When she had her hearings last year, she was scared to even have audio in the hearings and so we didn't get that, we just got a cold transcript and, you know, this is going to be one of the most important trials the nation's ever faced in a federal courtroom. That federal courtroom is paid for by American dollars, it is the people’s courtroom, and they should be able to see what is happening inside.
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Given what you know about her Neil, what’s the likelihood that she would do that?
KATYAL: Well, I don't actually—I don’t know her, you know, and she is a, you know, confirmed federal judge, so I hope that she listens to argument and reason here, and understands, you know, just how important this is and I think the Chief Justice, who will ultimately make that call, you know, could—I could see him doing that.
After all, you know, he is the Chief Justice who authorized immediate-- live audio arguments to the Supreme Court, not video, but audio so that’s a start and I think the nation’s had a really powerful example of the importance of televised trials, that you can do it well with the George Floyd case, the trial against Derek Chauvin, of which I was special prosecutor, and folks were really worried about that televised proceeding, but we all, as Americans, got to see it every day, what happened in that—, what happen in that courtroom, Minnesota had a flat ban, never happened before, they did it here, it worked, and it should work here again.
