Watch the ReidOut with Joy Reid Highlights: Jan. 10

good evening everyone we begin tonight with breaking news just one day since the attorney for the former president of the United States argued in federal court that a president has the authority under the theory of absolute immunity to murder their political opponent only one Republican one reacted to that insane idea former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who up to about an hour ago was running for president against Donald Trump Christie the only Republican to consistently and sharply criticize Trump has dropped out of the race and what he has had to say about Trump and about his remaining opponents is where we begin tonight just a short time ago in New Hampshire Christie said he no longer saw a path to the Republican nomination please understand this I have known him well for 22 years more than anybody else in this race has known him and I can promise you this if you put him back behind the desk in the Oval Office and a choice comes and a decision is needed to be made as to whether he puts himself first or he puts you first how much more evidence do you need that he will pick himself but even before the announcement made it official apparently Christie didn't realize that his mic was still hot when he said this apparently speaking about Donald Trump's remaining Rivals yeah that's what you get yeah I mean look she spent 68 million so far just on TV spent 68 million so far 59 million by to santis and we spent 12 I mean who's punching above their weight and who's getting a return on their investment you know and she's going to get smoked and you and I both know it she's not up to this she has she's still 20 points behind Trump in the right and he's going to he's still going to carry IR right yes oh he's I I talked to Des sanis called me petrified that I would he's probably getting out after Iowa I mean ouch but also no lies detected in the meantime he's not endorsing any other Republicans for now which given everything doesn't seem entirely surprising joining me now is Jens saki host of inside with Jens Saki and Michael steel former RNC chair and co-host of a new Morning Show on MSNBC called the weekend with Michael steel Simone Sanders townend and Alicia Menendez which premieres this Saturday at 8:00 a.m. eastern and with my congratulations my friend I I normally would do ladies first but I got to come first my brother he's going to be getting up really early soon real early exact I remember the day I remember the time but yo Chris Christie yeah let's talk I mean he he has known Trump the longest out of everyone here the hot mic thing we're GNA get to in a second right talk about what he had to say about Donald Trump today in that epic um what he said today is what he has been saying and I I I hope people appreciate that this was not Chris Christie setting up okay now let us help get through the primary process this was a general election call that he was making to the country he wasn't talking to that Republican base in the prime that that that off the mic you know hot mic moment sort of clarifies that for you if you were confused but the reality of it is he is now I think putting himself out there as someone who's going to be in this campaign without actually being in it and I think that's important um I'll be honest a lot of what he said I wish Republicans had been saying for a long long time where are the rest of them this is the point there Donald Trump's lawyer Michael steal yeah went into a federal court and said that the president of the United States has the absolute authority to have Seal Team 6 run a hit on their political opponent meaning by his logic Joe Biden could have a hit against Donald Trump and he made that and no one said anything except Chris fristi what is happening so so the question to those folks is do you think it's okay that Joe Biden could order Seal Seal Team Six to have call out a hit on on Donald Trump what's your yes yes or no because basically Donald Trump said that yeah he could do it so that's that's part one they're but the question is they're not going to answer that question they're not really going to get to it what's what I think is important right now is what Christie does next how he takes this moment and turns it into potentially something that the Democrats can work with look the the truth of it is if I'm Joe Biden sitting and I watch that uh hey Chris get him on the phone really appreciate what you Republicans for Biden what you just said for the said to the country you know and he don't have to make any more of a move than that in other words connect that dot because I think you're going to see Christie play a role in this campaign that Republicans will Ru he's Liz Cheney he's Adam kiner now but look what happened to them they were driven out of the party lost their seats they can no longer serve an elected office effectively because they're against but you know n of them has been able to take that next step that Michel Ste is talking about and say I now endorse the incumbent because he's not a madman can Chris Christie do that will he do it can he do it yes will he do it I don't think immediately I think look Joe Biden I worked for him for a year and a half he no question he picked up to call Governor Christie whether Governor chrisy they're right those States they've known each other yes and he's an old school politician and Christy is in some ways as well so no question he call him did he take the call I don't know what I heard from the off mic the the the cotton mic that you know love those moments we all do is he still a little little bitter feels a little bit perplexed as to why he didn't do better he may not be ready yet right he had a lot to get off of his chest he knows he can have a powerful voice and if you read in between the lines of what he said tonight I mean he kind of criticized Joe Biden a little bit right but he eviscerated Trump he eviscerated Trump he he clearly is angry at Haley he's going to have to get over it because there's no unicorn coming into the race so if he really wants to prevent Trump from getting elected he he's gonna have to he's G let let me play one more thing he said this is him talking about his Republican Rivals and this kind of lets you in on why he's not endorsing any of them uh let's listen Donald Trump becomes the nominee of this party the moment that it happened was when Nikki haly and Rona santis and Tim Scott and Mike Pence and Doug bergham and V ramaswami stood on that stage in Milwaukee in August and when we were asked would you support someone who is a convicted felon to be president of the United States they raise their hands boom boom Doug beram we missed you but where you what's important what's important about that moment is he then he then lays out the bar which is if you cannot say that Donald Trump is unfit for office then you yourself are unfit for the office and that you put those two points together what we just saw and that statement about the fitness of office you understand why he did not and you understand why he will not endorse and the other thing keep in mind everybody else got out the race and having endorsed either that's true but he is the only one that has had the courage to go after Donald Trump by name DeSantis didn't have the courage to do it Nikki Haley they're all sort of low-key still Trump fans while they're running he's the only one who did it so he is a significant player here um but and the fact is that the danger he's calling out is the same danger that Joe Biden is calling out that esper is calling out that's exactly true he has a lot of company among Republicans or people who consider themselves conservative Republicans an interesting moment in the spe well well it was certainly not to trumpers and it was more to modate Republicans or Independence there were a few moments we sort of exposed maybe what he was talking about on a therapist's couch over the last couple of years right which was basically looking back on his decision to endorse Trump and that message was to Haley and Ronda santis and maybe Doug beram he didn't just endorse him Jen he led his transition team he was a supporter of his he's known him forever he knew what this guy was and he still was and he's remedied his actions in many ways since then but that was sort of an admission and I heard that as a speaking to you're going to have to live with the consequences of the choices you make over the next 10 months speaking to those who are who are running for the president he was speaking to the party he was actually speaking to that 70% that 60 to 70% of the rest of the GOP yeah particularly those in elect let me play marer because they used to call me yeser right because he was the defense secretary who would do whatever he was told most of the time here he is saying what he wouldn't do this is C two for my wonderful director eventually it culminated the the long break simmering break between he and myself in June of 2020 when he wanted to deploy active duty troops on the street of Washington DC and and suggested actually that we we shoot American Americans in the streets one more cut this is esper saying what he thinks of trump here's esper again I do regard him as a threat to democracy democracy as we know it our institutions uh our political culture all those things that make America great um and have defined us as you know the oldest democracy on this planet Jen the the the the the seeds of Republicans for Trump are there yes there are Republicans who are willing to say that that guy's a Republican are not liberals these are not people who are liberal these are these are conservative Republicans who worked for Trump yes does is President Biden's campaign prepared in this moment to take full advantage of this whether or not these people endorse him outright when are they cutting these ads to endorse them they don't have to them right out and they may not be willing to appear in ads but they have all sorts of channels they talk to all sorts of people and they know how powerful Mark Esper's voice out there and a lot of these voices and and frankly what he just said for I you know I used to work in the National Security world people who are not political who would consider themselves Republicans that's exactly who worked in the Trump Administration that is exactly what they tell you that this is existential that these the threats he poses to National Security are historically existential so yes but I will tell you Joy I do think they are in touch through a range of channels it doesn't mean they have to be in ads he may not be in an ad I don't think he'll agree what he said could be in an ad it could be in an ad and outside groups and super Pacs can run ads with that sort ofu that's true and they should and they will I think okay it should go without saying that murdering your political opponent is not something any lawyer should ever support their client doing but that is essentially what Donald Trump's lawyer walked into a federal courtroom and argued yesterday that he could order a hit on his political rival or Rivals using the United States military without facing any legal account accountability with all that is going on in the world we can easily lose sight of how truly shocking and deeply disturbing that argument is but it is imperative that we stop for a moment and come to grips with what this man is having his lawyers say to the world to America and to the courts which is that he can do whatever he wants including assassination and nothing should be able to stop him it goes without saying that no person of sound mind would make this argument which is why it has historically been the province of dictators like Vladimir Putin Bonito melini Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler and not of American presidents Putin poisons and imprisons political opponents with zero consequences musolini arrested political opponents and endorsed fascist Squad violence on his path to power Stalin led a violent political Purge of his opponents that left more more than a million people dead and then there is Adolf Hitler who before consolidating power said anyone who stands in our way will be cut down he went on to lead a brutal Crackdown on civil rights freedom of expression he outlawed political opponents and had roughly 11 million Jews and others exterminated the paths to these dictatorships have been paved with claims echoed by Donald Trump and it is beyond astounding that his ostensibly Highly Educated attorney walked into a court of law and made the legal case for political violence without consequences and outside of Chris Christie Nar a word of condemnation was uttered by the Republican Party honestly the media didn't do much better chalking up this argument to a seemingly bold idea or a generic immunity claim it is also notable that at no Point have any of his lawyers in any of his cases encompassing 92 criminal counts argue that Trump is innocent in fact implied in their defenses is that he did do what he is being accused of doing but that he had the right to do it joining me now is Andrew Weissman former FBI general counsel and former senior member of the Mueller probe and Tim O'Brien senior executive editor of Bloomberg opinion thank you all for being here and you guys have been here offset well I've been losing my mind about this like literally since yesterday Andrew since I listened to this hearing I my jaw dropped yeah I would just love to get your um unfiltered reaction to it and to the brilliant questioning by these three judges yeah well particularly I mean all three were great Jud we've talked about Judge pen was a standout um I think what you focusing on is so important which is the normalization of crazy if you go back to when Trump said I could shoot somebody on fth Avenue and think about what you all what I remember what I thought about it I I was I just couldn't believe my ears what person not politician what person says that right then add a politician running to be president of the United States and I was thinking this is just unbelievable and we just had an argument in the courts that had legal dressing up of essentially that argument yeah um which was I there's no way it's going to win but it was normalized in the sense that there was sort of a respectful sort of back and forth as to why it is wrong um and that in some ways that's a testament to the rule of law but it is also a testament to sort of the how much Trump gets us used to the crazy and to your point in referencing these various leaders of the banality of evil yeah um and just how widespread it is whether it's lawyers whether it's Republicans who are complicit obviously not all Republicans are but the members of they quiet um exactly and who is not sitting there saying what seems so obvious which the president said which is condemning violence period on either side I mean this is not a controversial it's not like we're having a conversation this is the conversation that you used to have in grade school about this and now we have to have it in this format because we've lost it as one of the American Norms um so that's my sort of big picture and I think focusing on how much this has been normalized is really key and I have to say that even for for for my profession I feel that every single journalist who approached a member of Congress you know house or Senate should have been asking them do you agree that the president of the United States should be able to order SEAL Team Six to assassinate someone because I remember the Jeremiah right moment when every Democrat was asked do you condemn Jeremiah right do you condemn Jeremiah right and this was just a pastor of the man running for president this is actually the lawyer of the man running for president and here's why I think it they should be asked it Jamie rasing yesterday I think made an excellent point because they're saying that the immunity goes away only if the president is not just impeached but convicted in the Senate here's Jamie ask and explaining why that is not a way to get to Justice they're saying they have a right to engage in political assassination of their Rivals and if you can kill one person certainly you can kill several of them well let's say then they feel like they might be convicted in the Senate uh but if they could if they could just knock off three people who were going to vote to convict him then he'd be all right then they go ahead and murder them then he can't be convicted then he can't be prosecuted game set match Tim gam set match because I think the you know in addition to normalizing Trump's Behavior the next step is enabling it or weaponizing it and that's what this large coder of advisers politicians enablers of various Stripes have always done around him and there's some around him who who are along for the ride they like being in the Halo of his celebrity or power or the fact that he's Center Stage there's others who should know better and you know at the the top of the show you went through our famous list of 20th century dictators and and and um Andrew just mentioned well referred to H rent and the venality of evil you know one of the Hitler um Allan Bullock's Hitler bi biography he talks about the moment in the early 1930s when Hitler took power and the German industrial class uh and and traditional German conservatives thought that Hitler would be a useful idiot that he was somebody who could keep the labor movement down and rest store order amid chaos and he was this crazy guy everyone around him liked to wear uniforms and do parades and get in bar braws but they could manage him yeah and at the one point in the book where he talks about that moment he said they were all about to learn what it meant to ride the back of a tiger and I think that's where we are right now with Trump is is everyone who thought say the bill bars of the world or the Mitch McConnell of the world who thought that that Trump could be a sort of cudel for them to achieve either uh legislative or legal goals they had for themselves and that they could control them have been proven wrong the other idiots along for the ride who don't know better are still complicit and now we're at a point where the argument being made is that he should be a been able to do anything he wants right that no Civic Norms apply to him that the rule of law doesn't apply to him and and and that the courts themselves are are jihadists yeah and and that they're persecuting him and he's a victim right which he recognizes and then he plays that up for his own base who also feel victimized

Channel: MSNBC

Views: 131,021

Keywords: msnbc, MSNBC, Specials

Id: jmS8O4qHDBM

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2024