Trump directing racist threats against prosecutors is part of his 'fascist insurgency'
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough expressed alarm at the threats Donald Trump directed at the Black prosecutors who are investigating his fraudulent activities.
Fani Willis, the district attorney who's investigating Trump's efforts to undo his election loss there, has asked the FBI for help securing her office, and "Morning Joe" panelists agreed the threats had been provoked by the twice-impeached one-term president.
"We have seen the former president inspire violence, no moment more obviously than Jan. 6," said MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire. "He is, when he talks like this, there are people who listen and respond to it. What we're seeing here is an unprecedented step. As we know, when he was president he didn't like a news story because it was negative, he would call it fake news. Here he is suggesting that any investigation into him must be illegal."
"Now he has added the idea it must be racist because so many of the prosecutors involved are African American," Lemire added. "He's trying to delegitimize this. Again, I don't think we can overlook the idea of linking the Jan. 6 pardons comes at the same time he is calling for the mass demonstrations where it almost seems like, 'Hey, a quid pro -- could you go out there and protest for me, if things get violent, well, if I am elected again I will pardon you. We are sort of at an ominous new place with his rhetoric here, and it is no surprise. I doubt the prosecutor in Atlanta will be the only one who has to increase security as a direct result of what the former president is saying."
Scarborough said the racist element to the threats was particularly ominous, given the former president's history.
"How telling that Donald Trump, a guy who really leads an ethno-nationalist, some would say a fascist insurgency against the United States, is deeply offended by a Black woman daring to investigate whether he broke the law or not, trying to rig the election in Georgia and telling the secretary of state to find votes after the election was over," Scarborough said.
Trump's vote-stealing scheme so corrupt even 'loathsome' Bill Barr refused to participate
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Donald Trump's scheme to steal the 2020 election was so corrupt that even "loathsome" William Barr refused to go along.
New reporting shows the twice-impeached one-term president was personally involved in a months-long scheme to seize voting machines, although Barr and other high-ranking federal officials refused to act and Trump was eventually swept out of office.
"I'm looking at Barr's role in all of this," Scarborough said. "He is a fascinating character, fascinating storyline. He was a guy who was basically tapped by official Washington as being, you know, sort of having the 'Good Housekeeping seal of approval' before he went in as Trump's head of DOJ, his attorney general."
"Then he went in and official Washington was shocked," Scarborough added. "He lied about the Mueller report, he misrepresented the Mueller report. He conspired with Donald Trump to break the wall down between the White House and the Department of Justice. He committed perjury in front of, I think, the Senate and the House on numerous occasions. He just behaved just in a loathsome way for much of his tenure."
But even Barr had his limits, apparently.
"Then around election time he had enough and he basically punched his ticket and he said, 'I've done my duty, I'm getting out of here,'" Scarborough said. "It's fascinating that in the final month or so it was actually Barr that was putting up roadblocks every step of the way, saying no to a president trying to steal an election."
