President Donald Trump's pattern of abuse of power may not only take down his presidency, but many of those around him, an MSNBC analyst explained on Wednesday.
MSNBC's Chris Matthews interviewed David Corn, the Washington, DC bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine and co-author of the bestselling 2018 book Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.
"What about the conundrum here?" Matthews asked. "If this president is impeached -- which I think is pretty likely right now -- and if he’s removed from office, which there’s less chance of that perhaps, but if he is removed from office in favor of Mike Pence, Mike Pence is involved in the same cabal, which is using U.S. foreign policies to get dirt on rivals."
"This one particular incident, in fact, involving the president of Ukraine. That’s a little odd, to inaugurate swearing in a president who did the same thing as the one we just kicked out," Matthews noted.
"And remember Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- what is he, fifth in the line of secession -- so the question is can Donald Trump go down without taking everyone around him down?" Corn replied.
"Well, they will go with him," Matthews interjected. "They’d go with him."
"A sinking ship creates this gigantic whirlpool — and everyone who that been an enabler, whether it is Bill Barr or now Mike Pompeo, they're all --" he said, before being talked-over by the host.
Watch: