MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has said that President Donald Trump is “absolutely panicking” in response to the protests over the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) immigration raids.
During the handover between Maddow and fellow MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday night (June 9), the hosts discussed Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles in his attempt to quell the ongoing protests.
Maddow argued Trump’s actions are proof he has “no freaking idea” how to respond to the protests. “He’s decided that he’s throwing it all out. You know, dictator from day one,’ and you know, going to terminate parts of the Constitution. And he’s decided that he doesn’t matter what Congress does, and it doesn’t matter what the courts do, that he’s just the strong man he’s going to be. He’s decided to throw out all the rules.”
The veteran news anchor said all of this has made Trump “very boring,” stating, “It’s like it’s all on the table. We know exactly what he’s doing. We know exactly what his intentions are. He’s blonde Berlusconi. This is, I mean, he’s just trying to do the same thing all the other strongmen and would-be dictators do all over the country.”
For Maddow, she said the “really interesting question” is what the American people let him get away with. “We’re seeing a really interesting test of that right now, all over the country, especially this week,” she continued.
O’Donnell added his thoughts, saying that it appears the advisors around Trump during his first term likely prevented him from doing things that were illegal, such as deploying the National Guard without the approval of a governor. Now, his current advisors seemingly have no qualms with the president breaking rules.
“We can probably intuit that what he’s being told is, ‘Yeah, it’s illegal, therefore, go do it.’ I think that the more laws he breaks, the more blatantly unconstitutional things he both proposes and tries, I think the more they think power accrues to him because he’s less constrained by things that don’t actually stop him,” Maddow responded.
She added, “He’s deeply, deeply, deeply unpopular and underwater on every issue, and he is absolutely panicked by the protests against him, to the point where he’s already playing the biggest cards that he’s gotten. He’s not even six months into this term. I just think, I think we’re getting the test really early, and I think that he’s failing.”
You can watch Maddow and O’Donnell’s full discussion in the video above.
The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, Weeknights, 10/9 c, MSNBC
The Rachel Maddow Show, Mondays, 9/8c, MSNBC
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