Watch The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell Highlights: March 1

Colonel vinman you are one of those people who who you came from a part of the world that was not enjoying democracy and you saw something as a as a person who worked in in in the administration you saw something that felt dishonest and you stood up you had something to lose and you did lose something you lost your career um for doing it but that was what you when you said we can't have this lawlessness that goes on in the other parts of the world in America well I think you know in a lot of way

s we're seeing both Trump Telegraph the kind of world he wants to live in and then we don't have to use our imagination too hard because we could see that world manifest in front of us because he he Trump tells us he wants to emulate Vladimir Putin and in that we see what life could be like we see a world in which um Trump would like to eliminate his opposition he'd like to imprison them poison them potentially murder them Mass deportation we saw that play out in regards to Russia R and what I f

ear and what I frankly desperately hope doesn't happen is that we don't have to have our population come out in the in thousands or tens of thousands to protest against uh barbarism in the United States uh it's it's striking that over the course of two years of war Putin has done everything he could to suppress that population to oppress that population and think he's cowed them and clearly that's not the case people were out on the street chanting against the war chanting for um for Alexa Nal a

nd for a different vision of Russia and again I do do not wish to see anything like that happen in the United States and that's why you hear me and you hear Ambassador McFall who I had the privilege of of serving with in Moscow uh are so focused on making sure that war over there doesn't come home to the United States that our troops aren't getting don't get pulled in and that we protect democracy at home Ambassador let's talk about this idea that we are two weeks away from an election ction in

which there has never been any doubt that Vladimir Putin will be the Victor why does this stuff still happen why are those people prepared to go out there they know who the next president of Russia is going to be they know from as Colonel vinman said they know from the outbreak of the Ukraine war and other uh demonstrations in favor of naali or supporting his efforts they know you can go to jail for this in Russia and yet they come yet they come knowing that they may face arrest or harassment or

worse well I have deep admiration for all the people that did come on this horrific day for all of Russia uh for the noval family for me personally I knew I know the naali family I knew alexe personally for many years he was a tremendously talented leader he was the Mandela uh he was the haval he was the Valena uh of his country with one horrible tragic difference he was killed in prison he was not released and to answer your question uh I would say uh just remember what navali said in the movi

e at the end of it if they have to kill me and if I'm dead that means we're stronger than than you know we are than you that we're stronger than you think we are uh something to that effect and I think what you saw today because you're absolutely right every single one of those people are being photographed they can go to jail for years for what they were chanting I have friends in jail in Russia right now who have gone to jail for years for chanting what they said but they are defying him and f

or everyone that was there there are many many more sitting in their kitchens that are afraid but have exactly the same preferences and I think we have to remember that not all Russians think like Putin not all Russians support uh uh Vladimir karura told me uh Colonel vinman he told me years ago he said when when talking about these stories don't say Russians talk about Putin talk about the Russian Administration don't paint all Russians with the same brush and the same thing can be said for Ame

rica right now for a lot of people around the world who are looking at us saying what are you people doing it's not all of us people there are people in America who protest every day there are people who protest the injustices who are who fight it by running for office who fight it by being in office um so this is this is not a fight we have lost in America yet we have the vote our vote actually does matter and we can make changes but it takes acts of courage to do this I think that's true I thi

nk frankly we we might have only one more vote left that really matters if uh if Trump comes to office he's already declared that he intends to be a dictator uh the president and the chief executive is invested with in in Broad powers and uh it's not easy to undo American democracy that's been around for nearly 250 years but a lot of damage has been done and and president Trump has every intention to do that so we have one more vote we need to make sure our population shows up so like this we do

n't have to face th those challenges in the oppression that you know the the Russians are facing I think the fact is that between now and then it's going to be a particularly different difficult period there are steps that need to be taken to make sure that the war in between Russia and Ukraine doesn't spill over doesn't magnify that the highest risk of that happening frankly is if Ukraine doesn't get support the Republican Party must show up in uh in an effort to support and Advance US National

Security and pass a Ukraine Aid package a same Aid package that would support Taiwan and Israel but it's critically important that Ukraine gets Aid otherwise there's a very very big risk that that the war could spill over uh president macron of France alluded to something of this nature worst case scenario in the absence of the of the US in which Europe has no choice but to face off against Russia in Ukraine so like this they don't have to face off against Russia on their own territory so this

is an important point you bring up because one would say president mcon uh Ambassador is the president of France a NATO country why would Russia go into to a NATO country I want to remind our viewers of what Donald Trump said uh on February 10th in South Carolina uh about uh a a nameless NATO leader who said if you know if we don't pay what you say we're supposed to pay which is a sort of a misrepresentation to start with uh will will you protect us if if Russia does something and here's what fo

rmer president Trump said no I would not protect you in fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want so there you have it uh Ambassador as the colonel says we don't have to really uh stretch our minds too much to imagine what Donald Trump would do in these cases because he tells us what he would do well he does and that is really scary for me for the following reasons um he may say that and he may encourage Putin to go in to one of the countries on the border there but the idea

that we will stay out of that conflict that is naive Beyond uh imagination it reminds me of the 1930s when people just like Trump said that's not our problem over there doesn't matter what the Italians are doing in Ethiopia or the Japanese in China or Hitler in Poland and then it became our problem right and I was just in Munich last week speaking to leaders from that part of the world and in vnus the month before they are scared to death of that scenario when Putin tests our commitment to Artic

le 5 and we have a president perhaps like Mr Trump and it is naive for Americans to think that we will be able to keep out of a war in Europe better to be strong now Ronald Reagan said it peace through strength than to wait for that scenario to play out and don't believe me just go back and read what happened in the 1930s punctuated uh by what happened to us in 1941 Ali Ali if I could come in on this I just want to I mean the danger is frankly more real than that this is not a what if scenario w

hat happens if Donald Trump is back in office in 2025 the threat threat is real because what Donald Trump has done is he's offered a signal that the Republican party not just Trump in the future but the Republican party today would not show up in the event of an attack on NATO and that's a that's a recipe for disaster that's an invitation for Putin to test that resolve he's been wanting to destroy NATO for the whole time to test that resolve and that's a recipe for our troops to be in danger tod

ay because we would defend him but he might not perceive it that way and that's the same kind of scenario that unfolded in the month weeks and months before February 2022 where where Putin believed he saw the signal that the Republican party that the political establishment in the United States wouldn't show up and he struck he struck out at Ukraine we are kind of in that same situation now it is very dangerous it is very real and even in the num months before this election I think our troops ar

e now in much greater danger than they were beforehand that's a remarkable perspective on that Ambassador you you and Colonel vinman are both students of History uh one doesn't have to go tooo far back in history you can go back to U September 11th 2001 to the one and only time that article 5 the mutual defense uh article in of NATO was invoked and it was in invoked in the defense of the United States of America by every other member Nation who said you have been attacked so we have been attacke

d we're here for you that's right I'm glad you reminded me uh everyone of that I don't think Mr Trump understands that and by the way they didn't just invoke Article 5 they send their soldiers to fight with us and to die with us in Afghanistan so when I hear all this debate about 1 2% 2.1% I want to remind everybody that our NATO allies died for us we have not had to fight for them and we're all better off the one great Advantage we have as the United States of America when dealing with Russia o

r dealing with China are our allies M it's our one superpower we have allies and they don't so why Donald Trump doesn't understand that basic fact about our national security I know the Republicans do around him I know they're just afraid of him uh I wish they would speak up um and it and to go back to your analogies between Trump and Putin I actually wrote a piece about that Ollie in February of 20 17 and it wasn't uh how in Russia the Civil Society activist were there the opposition parties we

re there you know who was quiet it was the people in his party the oligarchs uh and those that allegedly listen to his Christian values right well he's not so bad he's going to cut our taxes and he speaks about Christian things that we care about that's what they said in their early years of Putin and it's aily uh similar to what I hear now so those people being silent that need to speak up before it's too late Katie let me start with you and and Georgia and the stakes in this case and what you

heard today and what it makes you think so it was closing arguments Ally and it was three hours of closing arguments which was remarkable but not really if you consider the fact that there are so many defendants and I guess the footnote to that would be the import of this case I mean it started with 19 codefendants it's a RICO case with multiple other offenses you've already had four of those codefendants played out some of whom were critical to the scheme to defraud and to try to overturn the G

eorgia election results and the reason why I talk about that is because we cannot lose sight of the fact that that is what this prosecution is about we have taken somewhat of a circus siiz show detour over the span of a number of weeks now to be able to litigate a motion to disqualify which in any jurisdiction would be serious but in this particular jurisdiction it has such import as you discussed in the setup alley because if fonnie Willis is disqualified under Georgia law and procedure her ent

ire office is disqualified and then you have to wait an innumerable amount of time for a reassignment and then the ultimate prosecutorial discretion of that new DA as to whether or not they want to pursue all of the charge and some or none but after these three hours of closing arguments what we were left with those of us that have been carefully observing was the fact that judge McAfee had a series of questions that he peppered to the defense and not so much to the state and what he focused on

for me as a lawyer and somebody who tried cases um in multiple courts is the following you know you have to have a burden of proof You Know Jack Smith for example when he takes Donald Trump and others to trial will have the burden of proof to prove his case Beyond to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt it's a lower burden in this eviden hearing scenario but there's a burden nonetheless but it's not on the prosecution it's on the defense and when you heard the judge ask the defense about whet

her or not you know they understood that something that is suggestive of wrongdoing is not a preponderance of the evidence standard it may just stop and consider the fact that the judge is carefully weighing the evidence in this case the testimony that's been provided by a number of witnesses including da fonny Willis herself and special prosecutor Nathan Wade but it's worth mentioning quickly Ally that the star witness for the defense and in fact he was called the star Witness by the judge hims

elf because there was these huge promises that were overd delivered by the defense in terms of Terrence Bradley the former divorce attorney for Nathan Wade he the only witness that took to stand twice during the course of this evidentiary hearing and he was just a big wamp wamp for the defense in the end he refused to corroborate or to affirm what the defense said which is that he had provided all of this very salacious kind of information behind the scenes about his former client Nathan Wade th

e defense is saying that fonny Willis still got a personal financial benefit but when the judge asked the defense well can you define that the defense said well it's like obscenity judge you know it when you see it I mean Ally that that's not an evidentiary standard that's not evidence and I think that is what is going to be the important thing for the judge what is the evidence can you tune out the White Noise can you tune out the pressure all of the potential Optics of a decision and can you b

ase it on the evidence and I submit to you that I think the judge in this case is is going to do that and we're going to get a ruling in the next two weeks that much he's told us Andrew what we don't have uh is is when the Florida judge uh aen Cannon is going to get us a ruling and look one of the things she's become known for is she takes her time with stuff and and has been somewhat sympathetic to the uh the the the the Trump uh legal teams constant requests for more time and and more things u

h but today they got shut down at least on one front by by the jacksmith uh Team about this idea that you can't start a trial within a couple months of an election um obviously you know a lot about these things sure um I think that there's no question that judge canon in her rulings uh has favored the defense even her reasoning has gone out of its way to find fault with the government and to side wherever possible with the defense in ways that I think continue to be pretty shocking remember she

is the judge who was reversed twice by the 11 circuit before the case was indicted um we do not know the trial date she did make various comments saying that she thought that the date that was sought by the government in July was unduly uh optimistic uh and she asked a lot of questions of the defense about not having a trial at all and certainly not in the lead up to the election uh I was surprised she even brought up the doj internal rule because the internal rules of the department don't in an

y way give rights to the defense they're not enforceable in any Court they're just internal guides to the Department Department of Justice um and that's something that the judge knows very well having worked as a prosecutor um so it really was none of her business to raise that and also the rule simply does not apply the rule is about not taking overed actions uh with respect to someone who's a political uh candidate shortly before an election why because you want to give that person an opportun

ity to have their day in court well this is the reverse this is an overt case where the government is seeking to have that trial seeking to have a day in court so um there was every reason for this not to apply and not for the judge to raise it in court there's a lot here to unpack and Nick you wrote a opad on this in the New York Times we don't even have to have an interview we can just read the title of your opet it says Biden can do better than airdropping food to Gaza um there's a lot that w

e can do better on uh President Biden said we will will not stand by we will not let up except we have stood by and we have we have stood by exactly yeah I mean we have stood by and there is some inherent contradiction in us helping provide the Weaponry that creates the destruction and helping provide the Diplomatic protection to Israel as it as it blocks Aid and then us moving in to try to drop Aid on a crisis that we have helped create and one in which many of the victims are children who uh b

ear no responsibility for the terrorist attack on October 7th let's talk about um what we can do better and I look I will give Joe Biden credit for being possibly the most optimistic man on Earth in thinking there's going to be a deal there there are the outlines of a deal it's not coming together and Benjamin Netanyahu says as often as he has asked that it's not the kind of thing he's going to do so let me say what you've written about in your article you've said the simplest path forward would

be for Biden to insist that Israel open more Crossing points allow many more trucks through permit civilian police escorts and accept that unra and Aid groups will play a central role in food distribution that would be less visual than an airdrop but it would save far more lives expand on that please so one reason for the tragedy yesterday was that uh Israel apparently did not want to have food a delivered through uh unra the the un organization that it is um made a lot of allegations against a

nd that may well have had 12 people participate in the October 7th attacks uh it has also been reluctant to work with traditional Aid agencies um and so it apparently had contractors uh protected by Israeli tanks try to go in um and look you know the people who know how to deliver Aid are those Aid agencies including under they have that that those people on the ground that Network and what you need to make airdrops work and I've seen them is also that group you know those people on the ground w

ho collect uh pallets when they're dropped to protect it from just some random gunman seizing it you know if you just drop food Aid who's going to get it it's going to be Hamas not most vulnerable people and right now the most vulnerable people in Gaza are kids um and you know the toll there it just you know I mean I've covered a lot of crises around the world but I uh 250 children under the age of one have died so far in Gaza I can't think of any recent conflict in this Century in which that ma

ny kids have died that quickly in a war