Maddow joins colleagues in objecting to McDaniel for legitimizing Trump, attacking democracy

the person who is the head of the Republican Party during Donald Trump's time in office and during his effort to throw out the election result and stay in power anyway and during his effort to run for election again after having done that is R Romney McDaniel and she pitched in and helped she helped set in motion the part of the plot that involved sending fake Trump electors to Congress from states that Trump did not win so Republicans in Washington could use those fake fraudulent elector slates

to contend that maybe Trump did win those States even though he didn't and don't believe me on that there she is on page 23 and Page 27 of the Federal indictment charging Donald Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States there's her personal appearance in this scene of the crime as alleged by the US justice department in this ongoing criminal case in Michigan where the fake electors are themselves now on trial she told the state of Michigan in writing explicitly do not certify the elect

ion results the Detroit news has reported that with Donald Trump on the phone with her she directed Michigan election officials to not certify the vote she told them quote do not sign it we will get you lawyers she pitched in she was part of the project and what was the project it was to use the power of the Republican Party Republican officials in the states Republican office holders in Washington the national Republican party that she runs to use the party's power to reject election results to

take over the government and hold Power by other means and this project is now ongoing right now the project is to tell the American people that those efforts around the 2020 election were righteous that 2020 election it wasn't okay those election results were not correct we shouldn't believe American elections we shouldn't believe American elections are real elections American election results should not be seen as real they should not be respected that's the project now right I mean it didn't

work to overthrow the government the last time but as long as you can build on that first effort as long as you can keep up the anti-election mythology then you are priming your people you're priming the American public to not accept the results of the next election either you're telling them that they're going to need to take power by other means because the election isn't going to be how we do it anymore you're also priming people honestly to to vote to give up this supposed democracy we have

because what good is it Anyway right so what are we really losing if we if we decide we're going to lose this who cares elections are fraudulent here anyway who cares if we give them up Ron McDaniel has been pitching in on that too continuing to say since 2020 that that election wasn't right that the American public should know that that vote wasn't real and that is a message not only about 2020 but about this next election and about whether or not election should matter at all and whether we s

hould bother having them at all the Republican Party getting behind that message is a choice I mean Trump himself is going to do what he wants to do we've always had guys like Trump sometimes they were ridiculous little uniforms right but we've always had guys like that we've never before had a big storied important American political institution Embrace a guy like that even when it came to overthrowing the American system of government and in a time like this it's hard right I mean it's this is

a challenging and worrying time Republican officials to figure out whether they're going to stand up for the American system of government or not Republican politicians you know Congress has to decide if it's going to assert its own relevance they're going to assert their own independence their own role in the government stand up for our system of government or not judges and prosecutors have to decide if they're going to be braver than they ever thought they'd have to be in this job they have

to decide whether they're going to stand up to the threats and the violence vience and nevertheless be independent be Fearless stand up for their own independence and thereby stand up for our system of government regular citizens have to decide if we're going to Brave the threats and the violence to stay involved in politics to work for campaigns to volunteer as election workers despite all the threats all the attacks all the violence to stand up for our system of government and then there's the

Press which is both reporting on all of this and is also part of it because just as a strong man needs to control the judicial branch or get rid of it needs to control the Congress or get rid of it needs to control the political opposition or get rid of it what what the strong man most desires before all of that the necessary precursor to all of that is to control the Free Press or get rid of it and and you know in the Press we do not take it personally when we get attacked when they you know s

ay they want to put us on trial and execute us for treason we don't we don't take it personally but we do defend ourselves as an institution not because we're personally offended by the way that we're treated but because a free and uncowed press is necessary for our democracy a free and uncowed press is part of our system of government we stand up for ourselves as a way of standing up for our country and for our constitution the First Amendment to which makes it possible for us to exist at all a

nd so I want to associate myself with all my colleagues both at MSNBC and at NBC News who who who have voiced loud and principled objections to our company putting on the payroll someone who hasn't just attacked us as journalists um but someone who is part of an ongoing project to get rid of our system of government someone who still is trying to convince Americans that this election stuff it doesn't really work that this last election it wasn't a real result that American elections are fraudule

nt because that argument that is a necessary part that is the most necessary part of the overall project of getting us As Americans to give up on this election stuff cuz wouldn't we rather have a real man in charge anyway somebody who could really get some stuff done if only we could clear away all the things in his way we have a long history in this country of forgettable men telling us that we need a new system of government where everything's under their control and politics is over and this

new strongman way of government is going to make America great again we have had a lot of these guys but our generation's version of this guy has gotten a lot farther than all the rest of them and why is that he he would have been as forgotten as all the rest of them had he not been able to attach himself to an institution like the Republican party and had the leader of that party in his time not decided that she wouldn't just abide him she would help she would help with the worst of it it's my

understanding that msnbc's leadership did not object to Ron McDaniel being hired by NBC News when the matter first arose but when the hiring was announced and MSNBC staff essentially unanimously and instantly expressed outrage our leadership at MSNBC heard us understood and adjusted course we were told this weekend in clear terms Ron McDaniel will not be on our air Ron and McDaniel will not be on MSNBC and I say that and give you that level of detail because there has been an effort since by oth

er parts of the company to muddy that up in the press and make it seem like that's not what happened at MSNBC I can assure you that is what happened at MSNBC Ron McDaniel will not appear on MSNBC so says our boss since Saturday and it has never been anything other than clear and I will also say you know if if you care what I think about this I will tell you the fact that Miss McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC news to me that is inexplicable I mean you wouldn't you wouldn't you wouldn't hire a li

ke a a wise guy you wouldn't hire a maid man like a mobster to work at a DA's office right you you wouldn't hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener and so I I find the decision to put her on the payroll ex inexplicable and I and I hope they will reverse their decision and it's not about you know Democratic party Republican party it's not about partisanship it's not about right versus left it's not about being a political professional versus some other kind of person it's not about being mean

or nice to journalists it's not about just being associated with Donald Trump and his time in the Republican party it's not even about lying or not lying it's about our system of government and undermining elections and going after democracy as an ongoing project right and this is a difficult time for us as a country and I think that means we need to be cleare eyed about the implications of it difficult times make for difficult decisions we are contending with something we've never had to conte

nd with before in the news business yes we are covering an election which we do all the time but we're also covering Bad actors trying to use the rights and privileges of a democracy to end democracy the chief threat among them now is not the riers and the CPS but the Slick political professionals who are turning their considerable talents to laundering violently revolutionary claims that America's elections aren't real that election results aren't real and that they shouldn't be respected we ar

e contending with this now not from William Dudley Pell's brown shirt militias right but from the multi-billion dollar massive political operation of one of the two governing parties of the United States of America and that's new and and with our country up against something that daunting and that scary and that dangerous for the country I think bad decisions will inevitably happen mistakes will be made but part of our resilience as a democracy is going to be recognizing us recognizing when deci

sions are bad ones and reversing those bad decisions hearing legitimate criticism responding to it and correcting course not digging in not blaming others take a minute acknowledge that maybe it wasn't the right call it is a sign of strength not weakness to acknowledge when you were wrong it is a sign of strength and our country needs us to be strong right now hey everyone MSNBC has a new and improved app you'll get realtime alerts and Analysis live blogs in-depth essays video highlights and the

best 2024 election coverage download the new MSNBC app here's how to do it you tap on the App Store on your phone you hit search on the bottom right corner you type in MSNBC you click on the MSNBC app you click on get or the cloud icon and enjoy it