MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell opened his show Wednesday night by calling Republican voters “brainwashed,” and asserting “the president appeared to commit a crime in public.”
O’Donnell started his show telling listeners “Today is an historic day, a truly historic day, in the Trump presidency, in this country. It is an historic day in the 229-year history of the American presidency, because today we did really arrive at the Fifth Avenue moment.”
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O’Donnell then played the famous clip of Trump joking he could “shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters.”
Following the clip, O’Donnell explained to his audience, “Today was that day. Today the president appeared to commit a crime in public. And for the last two-and-a-half years since Donald Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it, he has been preparing his voters for this day. And he has been preparing the Republican Party for this day, and he has been preparing the American news media for this day. And the president’s plan appears to have worked. He has successfully brainwashed his voters.”
..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
Earlier Wednesday, Trump tweeted that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should end Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Later in the program, O’Donnell made the case that the tweet was “nothing short of jury tampering.”
He brought on former Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks to lay out the case for jury tampering.
O’Donnell said, “On day two of Paul Manafort’s trial, the president did something we have never seen any other president do. He deliberately, willfully, and with pre-meditation, interfered with that trial.”
The host then flashed this Trump tweet on the screen.
Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn’t government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion – a Hoax!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
After reading part of the tweet he said, “So there’s the president of the United States telling the Paul Manafort jury that what they are witnessing is a hoax.”
Wine-Banks later added, “I think the words that you just read, are really a message to them (jurors) in the same way. I think the Arpaio pardon was a message to witnesses — you don’t have to cooperate, don’t worry about it, you can be in contempt of court, and I’ll pardon you. So I think he’s sending a message.”
“I think he’s using a public forum to send a message to the jury that he should not have his former campaign chair convicted of anything.”