The rash of current plea deals of former Trump lawyers and advisers to Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis is causing the usual excitement -- and the usual premature glee -- on MSNBC's Morning Joe that the "walls are closing in" on Donald Trump and his post-election tactics. The latest pleader is former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
There is zero irony as the network's Russian-collusion conspiracy enthusiast Ken Dilanian presented Starbucks-caffeinated echoes of all the Mueller-will-get-him mornings when Trump was in the White House. Trump aides are not "going down" for him! The light is bright at the end of the tunnel!
DILANIAN: Just think of the impact before a jury of having one of Donald Trump's closest aides testify that he told the president he lost the election, and that he's seen nothing that would suggest that there are any fraud claims that could overturn the election. And yet, Donald Trump is pursuing them any way.
Legal experts have said that prosecutors don't need to show that Donald Trump believed he lost the election in order to prove these criminal claims against Mr. Trump. But it sure would be helpful for a jury if they could establish that. Juries are humans after all. And it paints a larger picture of fraud.
And this also underscores that people with lives and careers independent of Donald Trump are not going to go down for him. They're not going to face millions of dollars in legal bills and potential years in prison to protect Donald Trump.
Maybe a few people who have worked for him for his whole life, who are in lower-level jobs, have this kind of blind loyalty -- we've seen that. But, but not these, these major Washington figures, or minor figures like a Jenna Ellis. They're just not willing to do it. And, and, and this stuff is really crumbling around Donald Trump.
Scarborough uncorked a bizarre analogy to the movie A Christmas Story -- Trump shot his eye out? -- and crowed that the chickens of all the election lies are coming home to roost. "Suddenly, they see the charges are coming. Because -- may have been a shock to some of these lawyers. But if you try to overturn an American election, well, law's coming after you. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of men."
The host was so enthusiastic he broke out the profanities. It wasn't a slip of the tongue. This was vulgarity with forethought.
"It's one thing to be making [pauses], making s--- up outside of a courtroom. It's quite another to walk into that courtroom, and get five to ten years."
Back in 2008, the MSNBC suits imposed a seven-second delay on Joe Scarborough after the Morning Joe host accidentally dropped an f-bomb on live TV.
Wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski could be heard moaning in dismay at her husband's indiscretion, and exclaiming, "not the right word." Willie Geist tried to bail Scarborough out, re-imagining Joe as having said that the former aides had been playing at a "game." That earned Mika's praise: "Good job there, Willie."
Language aside, their lust to see Trump in jail is never-ending. Since MSNBC makes TV to thrill Democrats, they never underline that Willis is an elected Democrat, counting on a Trump-loathing jury in a deep-blue county. These prosecutions look very partisan. Indeed, Trump's Democrat enemies inside the Justice Department, like Andrew Weissman, easily transitioned into MSNBC analyst jobs. The leakers became their paid speakers.
On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough dropping an s-bomb while discussing the decision of former Trump aides to flip on him was sponsored in part by Abbvie, maker of Skyrizi and Rinvoq, ADT, and Google.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
10/25/23
6:07 am EDT
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Meadows, as we can see here, the latest to turn on Trump. He is someone who could have extraordinarily damaging testimony against the former president.JOE SCARBOROUGH: And there's a headline, "They're All Turning on Trump."
Obviously, Ken Dilanian, we have, we have the Jenna Ellis story out of, out of Georgia, that we'll get to in a bit. I'm, I'm, I'm curious, though, what, what you believe the impact of Mark Meadows turning on Donald Trump would be. And also, your reaction to Meadows' attorneys -- I don't know that I'd quite call it a non-denial denial.It may have been too clever by half.
We've all, we've all seen people put statements out like that when they found one or two words weren't exactly right. And then tried to, tried to dismiss the overall story. But what's your take on all of it?
KEN DILANIAN: That's a great assessment, Joe. As you can imagine, we all at NBC have done some reporting behind the scenes on this. And, and the informed speculation about this denial is -- or the question is, is there some issue around the immunity question? Was there some imprecision in the ABC News report?
There's a lot of different ways that a witness can get immunity. You can get what's known as queen for a day proffer immunity. Use immunity. So that, there may be some inaccuracies there. But the gist of what Mark Meadows is telling investigators, no one is disputing that, including Donald Trump's lawyers are not publicly disputing that.
And just think of the impact before a jury of having one of Donald Trump's closest aides testify that he told the president he lost the election, and that he's seen nothing that would suggest that there are any fraud claims that could overturn the election. And yet, Donald Trump is pursuing them any way.
Legal experts have said that prosecutors don't need to show that Donald Trump believed he lost the election in order to prove these criminal claims against Mr. Trump. But it sure would be helpful for a jury if they could establish that. Juries are humans after all. And it paints a larger picture of fraud.
And this also underscores that people with lives and careers independent of Donald Trump are not going to go down for him. They're not going to face millions of dollars in legal bills and potential years in prison to protect Donald Trump.
Maybe a few people who have worked for him for his whole life, who are in lower-level jobs, have this kind of blind loyalty -- we've seen that. But, but not these, these major Washington figures, or minor figures like a Jenna Ellis. They're just not willing to do it. And, and, and this stuff is really crumbling around Donald Trump.
SCARBOROUGH: Well you know, and I -- Willie, this is sort of the Christmas story metaphor that I'm sure every great legal mind across America has been thinking. A BB gun, it's all a lot of fun until it puts somebody's eyes out.
And while they're running around playing, following Trump, thinking, oh look what he's saying, he's getting away with. This is fun. We're getting to own the libs. We're getting to own the press. Oh my god.
They really -- talk about a feeling of immunity. They felt like they had an immunity not only from the law, but the truth. They could say anything because this guy was the President of the United States and he was lying every day and sending out lawyers to lie every day. Say horrible things about federal judges, completely undermine the rule of law. At least they thought in their mind they could. They thought they could lie their way out of a presidential election.
And then they wake up. And suddenly, they see the charges are coming. Because -- may have been a shock to some of these lawyers. But if you try to overturn an American election, well, law's coming after you. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of men.
So, we heard it from Jenna Ellis a couple of weeks ago. She said, listen, I'm not -- I don't have money! I don't have money like all these other people. I'm not going to sit here and blindly defend Donald Trump. He's a narcissist! He's crazy. I wouldn't even vote for him again.
And so, suddenly [snaps his fingers], it's all fun and games until it's not. She decides -- I'm sure family members around her said, you've got to protect yourself. Stop lying for this man.
Same thing with Mark Meadows. I'm not privy to anything that Mark and his family says. But what do you think, what do you think his wife and children said to him? Really? Like.you've been following this guy around for years. Are you going to follow him to prison?
And as Ken Dilanian said, that, it's, it's one thing to be making [pauses], making s--- up outside of a courtroom --
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: [Moans in dismay.]
SCARBOROUGH: It's quite another thing to walk into that courtroom and get five-to-ten years.
WILLIE GEIST: Yeah, I mean, in many ways, you used the right word: a game. It was a game to Rudy Giuliani. It was a game to Jenna Ellis.
MIKA: Not the right word.
SCARBOROUGH: [Laughs] That was the right word. Game. Exactly. That was the right word.
GEIST: It's called relevance.
MIKA: Good job there, Willie.
