Politics

MSNBC’s Eugene Robinson Likens Trump Lawyers To ‘Star Wars Bar Scene’, Says ‘This Trial Has To Happen’

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Brandon Gillespie Media Reporter
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MSNBC analyst Eugene Robinson on Monday compared former President Donald’s Trump’s team of lawyers to the “‘Star Wars’ bar scene” and emphasized that his impeachment trial “has to happen” for the sake of accountability.

Robinson appeared on “Deadline: White House” and was asked by host Nicolle Wallace what he made of the impeachment being centered on Trump’s “incitement of the insurrection.”

“Well, if there’s not going to be accountability for this, then what in the world do you ever hold a president accountable for?” Robinson responded. “You called it a coup plot, and that’s exactly what it was. It was an attempted coup. Over a period of a couple of months, the President tried through any means necessary to overthrow the result of a free and fair election that he lost.”

Robinson referred to the months following the November election, in which Trump claimed there was widespread voter fraud that led to President Joe Biden’s victory. Trump’s legal team brought forward lawsuits in multiple states challenging the results, but was rarely successful.

“He tried to do it time and time again, in different ways and this didn’t work, and he tried that, [inaudible] and he had his ‘Star Wars’ bar scene of lawyers file lawsuit after lawsuit that got thrown out, you know, and laughed out of court basically. I mean, this is astounding. This is — you can laugh at it almost, because in part it was comic, but this is as serious as it gets.”

It is unclear what Robinson meant when he said “‘Star Wars’ bar scene.” He was likely referencing a scene from the 1977 film “A New Hope,” in which the main character, Luke Skywalker, visits a bar with different species of odd creatures and gets into trouble with some that are hostile.

Trump’s claims of voter fraud culminated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a mob of his supporters. Prior to the mob attack, Trump held a rally near the White House where he called on those in attendance to march on the Capitol and demand a joint session of Congress stop the certification of the Electoral College results. Trump was impeached on Jan. 13 after being accused of inciting the mob. The Senate trial is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8. (RELATED: Karl Rove: ‘Strong Likelihood’ Of Trump Conviction If He Goes With ‘Rudy Giuliani’s Defense’)

“Look, if there’s not accountability for this, then what kind of democracy do we have? And so, this just has to happen. This trial has to happen. And Republicans are going to have to listen to this evidence. There’s going to be more and more evidence, and then they’re going to have to vote their conscience, and we’ll see if they have a conscience,” Robinson concluded.