Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) blamed the murder of a health care CEO on "people's anger" about unfair insurance practices.
During a Sunday interview on Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker noted that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) suggested that Luigi Mangione allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson because "you can only push people so far and then they start to take matters into their own hands."
"I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder," Warren later clarified.
Sanders insisted that "Elizabeth Warren obviously understands killing and murder and shooting somebody in the back is totally unacceptable."
"But what I think has happened in the last few months is that what you have seen rising up is people's anger at a health insurance industry which denies people the health care that they desperately need while they make billions and billions of dollars in profit," he added.
Sanders argued that Warren "did not" applaud Thompson's killing.
"But I think what we need to ask ourselves when we talk about health care is why we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people, why we have a life expectancy which is significantly lower than in other countries, why working-class people die five to ten years shorter than the people on top," he remarked. "I think the time is long overdue for us to guarantee health care to every man, woman, and child, especially at a time when we're spending twice as much per capita on health care as the people of every other nation."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he expects former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary unless someone comes forward to confirm anonymous allegations about alleged drinking problems and sexual assault.
"I'm in a good place with Pete, unless something I don't know about comes out," Graham told NBC's Kristen Welker on Sunday. "These allegations are disturbing, but they're anonymous."
"There's one allegation in a police report about sexual assault," he continued. "That person has the right to come forward to the committee."
"You're not going to destroy his nomination based on anonymous sources."
Welker pointed out that the woman who accused Hegseth of sexual assault had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) preventing her from telling her side of the story.
"He told me he would release her from that agreement," Graham revealed. "I'd want to know if anybody nominated for a high-level job in Washington legitimately assaulted somebody."
"If people have an allegation to make, come forward and make it like they did in Kavanaugh, we'll — we'll decide whether or not it's credible.
During a discussion on the wide array of Donald Trump's more than problematic Cabinet nominees, former RNC chair Michael Steele finally had enough and ripped into GOP lawmakers who he claims will rubber-stamp every one of them.
According to Steele, now co-host of MSNBC's "The Weekend," the nominee's visits with Republican senators is nothing less than a "sham."
"It is such a farce!" he exclaimed. "These people are so full of it, they are going to sit down, they are going to pontificate and they going to bend over and kiss the behind on this process and that is how this will play out."
"All of this drama right now, 'I have concerns,' is just crap because they don't have the will to do the right thing on [Kash] Patel, Tulsi Gabbard or RFK Jr. or on anyone else who is ill-equipped and unfit to serve in these important positions," he asserted.
"And the American people will be sitting back here in 18 months going, 'Well, what the hell happened?'" he predicted.
Late Saturday the settlement was announced with the network donating $15 million "to a Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past." In addition the network apologized and will pay $1 million for Trump's legal fees.
Reacting to the news, MSNBC's Symone Sanders Townsend exclaimed, "What is going on?' and pressed legal analyst Joyce Vance to explain why the network rolled over.
Noting that Vance, as a former U.S. Attorney, has experience with defamation lawsuits, she asked her to explain the possible reasoning behind the surprise settlement.
"I think everybody was surprised by this," Vance admitted. "And precisely because the depositions had not taken place yet. It seemed like a really early point in this case for it to be settled."
"You know the standard and defamation cases, right?" she asked. "In order to prevail, Trump would have to prove that ABC was reckless when it came to the truth or falsity of the statements they made on air. That would be a tough bar for Trump to reach in this case because of the kinds of statements that were made and the outcome of the E. Jean Carroll defamation case against Trump."
She went on to point out, "The jury found that E. Jean Carroll had been sexually assaulted by Trump and not raped. The judge's comment, by the way, which is made after the show airs on ABC come significantly after. I think it is still powerful evidence by ABC which they could have used."
Donald Trump on Saturday announced a new position for Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes, prompting one reporter to describe purported "conflicts of interest."
Trump has caused a media firestorm with his nominations for his second term in office, with candidates like Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, and Robert F. Kennedy Dr. drawing additional scrutiny. But over the weekend, Trump announced that Nunes would be Chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, "which consists of distinguished citizens from outside of the Federal Government."
"While continuing his leadership of Trump Media & Technology Group, Devin will draw on his experience as former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and his key role in exposing the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, to provide me with independent assessments of the effectiveness and propriety of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s activities," Trump said on Truth Social. "Congratulations Devin!"
CNN's Steve Contorno on Saturday read the newest appointments on air.
"Literally from the air, Donald Trump named some close advisers and allies to some key roles, including Troy Edgar. He's an IBM executive who will be deputy secretary of Homeland Security. He previously worked in the Department of Homeland Security, so he is very familiar with that agency."
He added, "Also, he's someone who contributed to Project 2025, that controversial playbook for Trump's second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign, but continues to pull people from to fill his administration."
Continuing, the reporter read about Nunes' role on the intelligence advisory board.
"It's an interesting pick because he also has some some conflicts of interest, just like many of Trump's choices," Contorno said. "He is the current CEO of Truth Social, the social media website that Donald Trump launched after leaving the White House."
"And now he will stay in that role and also be advising the president elect on national security issues," he added.
The host, Alex Witt, asked McCammond about Trump "backtracking" on his promise to lower grocery prices. In a recent interview, the president-elect suggested lowering grocery prices won't be easy and said he wouldn't be to blame if his efforts to do so failed.
After commenting on Trump's purported style of not giving many details on his policies during the campaign, McCammond said Trump has cultivated a persona of a "successful businessman," which she said "allows people to believe what you are saying, even when you don't have specifics."
"Now, I think what will be really interesting is if we start to see his own supporters turn against him if and when they are in the thick of, god forbid, an economic recession, but a situation in which they cannot afford basic groceries because of tariffs and other things that Donald Trump himself is either doing explicitly or basically admitting now that he can't do, like bring down the price of groceries," she then added.
Donald Trump's team is using behind-the-scenes moves to win over senators in hopes that they will confirm his controversial nominee to lead the FBI, according to a reporter.
Trump signaled his intention to appoint Kash Patel as the director of FBI, leading to outrage among critics who say he's too focused on being a loyalist.
Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell, who has long covered Trump's campaign, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to discuss Patel's path to the position.
The host asked Lowell about what his sources are telling him "about how Patel is able to rise above his controversies during his meetings with senators this week."
"Yeah. It was a pretty smart strategy to basically hide himself behind the other controversial nominees," Lowell replied. "People like Pete Hegseth, who has continued to be in the headlines this week and, while Pete Hegseth was attracting all of the scrutiny, Kash Patel very quietly had 17 meetings with senators, which is quite extraordinary given he is supposed to be one of the controversial nominees as well."
He continued, saying, "My sources tell me part of the reason why he went around to the senate judiciary committee members is because all of these controversial guys have the same problem."
"They have the same problem with McConnell, people like Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, the senators who won't necessarily be swayed as easily by Trump because Trump doesn't have leverage over them, so they have to find ways to convince them to back nominees and for Kash Patel's case, the idea was, well, if the senate judiciary committee reports out his nomination unanimously, McConnell as an institutionalist would also vote in favor," the reporter added. "They're trying to narrow down the number of people who can vote against him. It's been quote a clever strategy.
Appearing on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show" on Saturday, a former Southern District of New York prosecutor all but rolled her eyes when asked a long-shot bid from one of Donald Trump's lawyers to get his client's civil fraud conviction tossed with a plea to New York Attorney General Letitia "Tish" James.
Speaking with Phang, herself also a former prosecutor, attorney Kristy Greenberg explained that there is no reason for the president-elect's civil trials to be dismissed in the same way his federal trials were dropped after he won re-election.
That brought them to the ruling in Judge Arthur Engoron's courtroom where the Trump was found to have committed business fraud and was walloped with a $364 million penalty for ill-gotten gains.
As host Phang pointed out, Trump's attorneys have been making multiple appeals to get everything tossed, with no luck so far.
'Talk about Tish James and her response when she said 'Nah, we are not going to voluntarily dismiss this because it is civil case' and the law is legion when it comes to saying you can pursue civil remedies and civil actions against sitting presidents," host Phang prompted her guest.
"Right, I mean, the law there is very clear," Greenberg replied. "The Supreme Court has said if you are talking about civil litigation, that can go on even while he is sitting as president–– the law is crystal clear there."
"She cites it and she doesn't get into the back and forth with Trump's lawyer where his letter is saying what about unity, we need unity for the country? And her response doesn't even address that because come on, that's not really serious," she pointed out.
"She deals with the law which is clear this case is not going anywhere. It is fully briefed on appeal, we will see what the appellate court does."
A discussion on MSNBC on how insurance companies create roadblocks to Americans seeking medical care swerved into reporting that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been tabbed by Donald Trump to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services, has a key adviser who wants the polio vaccine taken off the market.
MSNBC's "The Weekend" invited on Columbia University Associate Professor Helen Ouyang to describe insurance horror stories she has encountered while working in emergency rooms.
That led co-host Alicia Menedez to bring up the cloud now over RFK Jr. about the efficacy of the polio vaccine that resulted to a major rebuke from outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who survived the deadly disease as a child.
"That's not in your insurance formula right now because we covered that," he exclaimed. "Now you got the secretary of health coming in saying, 'Guess what? We're not going to vaccinate kids for polio, we want to pull that vaccine off the shelf."
"The first polio case shows up, insurance companies, be prepared to pay for that because you got to figure that out –– that's the reality," he added.
During a segment on Donald Trump's plan to pardon Jan. 6 rioters after he is sworn into office, an exasperated MSNBC host gave up trying to make heads or tails out of comments the presidet-elect made to Time magazine.
Speaking with attorney Marc Elias, "The Weekend" co-host Alicia Menendez attempted to get a reaction from her guest by reading from the interview conducted with the president-elect that is part of the magazine's "Person of the Year" issue.
"I'm sure you saw, Marc," she began as she looked down at the article. "You had Trump talking to Time magazine about these pardons. 'I'm going to do case by case and if they were nonviolent, I think they have been greatly punished. And the answer is I will doing that, yeah, I'm going to look if there's --'"
"I can't even read this, the syntax is so bad" she told her guest. "But you get the idea, Marc. The thing we talked about is the fact that this is about a future permission structure, it's not just about punishment. It's about sending a message to people who would consider doing this again about what the consequences would be."
"Yeah," Elias replied before adding, "First of all, I have to give Time credit for one thing: not cleaning up his syntax. You're right, you read the words uncleaned up, it's incoherent."
During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Weekend," Julián Castro, who served in President Barack Obama's administration, claimed the press missed the one of the reasons Donald Trump's camp floated Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as a possible replacement for embattled secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth.
At his lowest point, the ex-Fox News personality Pete Hegseth appeared to be hours away from being dumped over allegations of sexual assault and public drunkeness, which led to the Florida lawmaker's name being leaked as a replacement to save Trump embarrassment.
According to Castro, he thinks there is more to it than was reported.
As he explained to the MSNBC hosts, "One last thing that's not as talked about, it was really fascinating when Trump felt that Hegseth's nomination might fail," Castro recalled. "He suggested Ron DeSantis as an alternate."
"I read that also as a veiled threat to the ambitious senators out there who are thinking themselves that, as soon as the 2026 midterms are done, they're going to be running for president," he continued. "And they don't want the elevation of a potential rival like DeSantis. So there are a lot of bits and pieces to this that I think are unfolding, some of them with a lot of attention and spotlight, and others without it."
During an appearance on CNN early Saturday morning, Washington Post reporter Toluse Olorunnipa stated that Donald Trump will have to tread carefully now that outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fired a warning shot across his bow over his cabinet nominees.
Late Friday McConnell served notice that the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in peril over fears he will try and roll back vaccinations for polio if he is confirmed as the head of Health and Human Services, based on a report from the New York Times.
According to the Washington Post reporter, the fact that McConnell felt free to make a major statement on one of the president-elect's most high-profile nominees is a reminder that it is Trump's last go-around as president and the clock is ticking.
Noting the pressure campaign Trump allies has been waging to get his nominees confirmed, which has drawn the ire of some GOP senators, Olorunnipa explained on CNN, "I think the the other part of this is that Trump realizes that he has slim majorities in the Senate and definitely in the House, and if he allows, you know, one or two senators or one or two House members to tank his Cabinet picks or his legislative agenda, it's going to make him a weakened president. "
"He's already a lame duck, and he wants to make sure that his Republican party is in lockstep behind him, because it's going to be necessary in order for him to get anything done legislatively, and that's why you're seeing this pressure campaign," he added.
"So far, it seems to be working, but I know a lot of these senators are very independent-minded and they don't like being pressured and so we'll have to see whether it lasts, but right now, that seems to be the approach that Trump is taking," he concluded.
A Washington Post columnist and economics commentator jabbed President-elect Donald Trump late Friday on CNN — and did so with a snarky apology.
Catherine Rampell — who just a day earlier found herself in a spat with Republican strategist Scott Jennings — joined CNN's "NewsNight" to kick off a discussion about reporting that Trump's allies are mulling plans to weaken — or outright abolish — bank regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The FDIC, considered one of the most critical banking regulators in the United States, runs deposit insurance, a program that compensates a bank's account holders up to $250,000 if the bank fails and is unable to dispense the money in their account. Created in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, the program exists to prevent "bank runs," or cascading panics where bank's account holders withdraw their money en masse.
Rampell shredded the plan — but acknowledged that's one way he could fulfill a campaign promise.
"I'd like to start by apologizing to our viewers because last night I was on and I said Donald Trump had no plan for bringing down prices. But if in fact he wants to get rid of the FDIC and lay the groundwork for another Great Depression-style bank run, that would do it," she said. "That's how you get deflation, that's what happened during the Great Depression."
"It's just laying the groundwork for all sorts of financial instability," she said, later exclaiming: "We just had a banking crisis last year!"
Rampell then pushed back against Pete Seat, a former White House spokesman for President George W. Bush, who tried to insist the Journal report never explicitly stated Trump's team is considering doing away with deposit insurance.
"Literally nowhere in this story," he begins to say, as Rampell interrupts: "In the Wall Street Journal it does."
"No it doesn't! It said it would be absorbed by the Department of Treasury," said Seat, pointing specifically to the Journal's report that said, "Also discussed plans to either combine or otherwise restructure the main federal bank regulators, the FDIC, OCC and Federal Reserve."
"They're asking questions," he insisted. "They're trying to figure out the art of the possible to deregulate the financial sector. Why is that a problem?"
Rampell acknowledged that while there is a patchwork of regulators, that's not what Trump allies are talking about.
"They're talking about rolling back regulations altogether. Potentially getting rid of deposit insurance. That's how I read that story," she rebutted, adding doing so would add significant risk to the financial system and taxpayers.
Rampell later clashed with Republican strategist Erine Perrine, who tried to assert no one on Trump's team is pursuing "complete bank deregulation."
"Nowhere is that case even fathomable or something they are looking at," she said.
Rampell interjected.
"Read Project 2025!" she shouted, as the panel devolved into talking over each other.
Perrine, fed-up, pointed out that Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from the right-wing transition plan, which became the subject of scorn during the campaign.
As host Abby Phillip desperately tried to regain control of the panel, Rampell shot back, "You're saying the Wall Street Journal just published clickbait?"
They clashed again shortly thereafter, when Rampell exclaimed, "I don't think Donald Trump has a mandate to crash the banking system," responding to a common Republican talking point that Trump won by such a large margin he is essentially obligated to install even the most fringe ideas in the MAGA agenda.
Perrine hit back again.
"Well good news: That isn't what he's trying to do. And the unbelievable level that I've heard at this table of just speculation and ridiculous fear-mongering about something that isn't being talked about, isn't a serious policy proposal, no one is talking about bank deregulation, be honest with the American people."
