MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s video condemning the violence seen at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was meant for his future judge.
Johnson was asked by “Deadline: White House” host Nicolle Wallace whether he thought there were “more lawyers involved than speech writers” for Trump’s statement, and if Trump was reaching his aims of separating himself from any “legal culpability” from the Capitol riot after his presidency. (RELATED: Dem Rep: ‘Violent And Unstable’ Trump Should Try To ‘Deradicalize His Supporters’)
“This was a reverse of what we’ve seen throughout his presidency, right?” Johnson asked. “How many times did we see Lindsey Graham or Brett Kavanaugh saying something ridiculous and non-believable, and we came here and we’re like this was for an audience of one right? Stephen Miller, he wasn’t speaking to whoever he was talking to on TV. He was just talking to Donald Trump, because he knows Trump was watching.”
In the video released Wednesday, Trump explicitly condemned the Capitol rioters and said “violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and our movement.” He went on to say he had directed all federal agencies to ensure a “peaceful” transfer of power.
“This whole video was an audience of one. Whatever judge that he thinks he’s going to be in front of at some point down the road for inciting an attack, he’s talking to that judge. He’s like hey it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me [inaudible] and tech things are bad. That was the whole purpose of this,” Johnson continued. “So, look, his lawyers may think that’s going to help him out, but I mean if there was ever a living human being who is the epitome of circumstantial evidence, it’s Donald Trump. It’s every tweet that he wrote all the way up until that particular point.”
Trump has been blamed for inciting the storming of the Capitol because of his claims that the election was “stolen” due to widespread election fraud. He was impeached on Wednesday by the House of Representatives for the second time.
“I don’t know that the video helps him with any remotely competent judge,” Johnson said. “His best bet is maybe he gets a change of venue and ends up in front of a judge that he appointed, and if that person actually stumbled their way through law school maybe they’ll let him off, but most competent judges wouldn’t.”