Rachel Maddow says that Trump thought that the Department of Justice would never indict him.
Video:
Maddow said on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell:
I mean the reason he would do that. The reason you would keep talking about it, admitting that you took the stuff, coming up with multiple often self-contradictory explanations for why it was okay that you had the stuff, the reason you would volunteer all that information is because you fully believe that there is no chance anybody’s gonna charge you about it.
I mean, part of the fact — part of what I think former president Trump brings into this confrontation with the Justice Department is all the times in the past he’s gotten away with stuff that other people have been charged with. So, I think his willingness to discuss these things, in ways that now, with his indictment, seemed very damning, they seemed damning at the time, this in particular damning in retrospect, that’s directive. — direct evidence he didn’t think it is vulnerable to indictment. He didn’t think they would do it. He didn’t think they would do it because of who he is. And because of what he might threaten this country with.
Upon him being indicted. When we did see when he was indicted in New York, he called on his supporters to protest. To take to the streets. To fight. Nobody did. I don’t know if he’s going to do the same kind of thing. Or in what way he’s going to do that, with regard to what’s going to happen on Tuesday. That has been the implicit and in sometimes explicit threat of what he will do about what his sort of insurance policy is for what he plans to do to the country if the country plans to hold him accountable. That card is still on the table this, point hasn’t been flipped over.
Trump thought that he was entitled to break the law. Trump said before he was even sworn into office that he believed that presidents were above the law. He carried this belief into the White House and beyond. Trump believed that ex-presidents have executive privilege.
What Rachel Maddow said makes total sense. Trump never ever thought that the Department of Justice would indict him, which is why he openly confessed to crimes on television.
Donald Trump had his delusion that he is above the law shattered by Jack Smith, and even if he threatens violence, the ex-president can’t stop the wheels of justice.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
