'Wow': MSNBC panel stunned by Trump's deterioration since 2019 speech

Accusations made five years ago by Donald Trump against John Kerry have resurfaced after his alleged post-presidency conversations with Vladimir Putin were revealed.

The former president has spoken at least seven times with the Russian president since leaving office in 2021, according to Bob Woodward's new book, "War," and panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" recalled Trump demanding Kerry's prosecution in 2019 for urging Iranian officials to remain in the nuclear deal he helped secure as secretary of state and that the former president's administration had exited.

"Do you remember what Donald Trump said about John Kerry?" said host Joe Scarborough.

"Didn't he want him locked up?" replied co-host Willie Geist.

Producers rolled a clip of Trump in the Oval Office accusing Kerry of violating the Logan Act, a rarely invoked federal statute dating to 1799 that prohibits unauthorized private diplomacy with foreign nations, and he falsely alleged that he had urged Iran not to engage with the GOP administration.

"That's a violation of the Logan Act," Trump told reporters at the time. "Frankly, he should be prosecuted on that. My people – only the Democrats do that kind of stuff, you know. If it were the opposite way, they'd prosecute him under the Logan Act, but John Kerry violated the Logan Act. He's talking to Iran and has been. He has many meetings and telling them what to do. That's a totally violation of the Logan Act."

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The panelists were stunned by the difference between the inaccurate but articulate Trump of 2019 and the version they frequently note loses his train of thought and rambles incoherently.

"Wow," Scarborough said. "Speaking far better."

"Coherently," Geist agreed.

"Understanding the law," pointed out co-host Mika Brzezinski.

The panel also shamed his running mate J.D. Vance for claiming he didn't know the famed Watergate journalist was still alive as a defense for Trump's reported behavior.

"You look at J.D. Vance here and you just ask, what happened to this guy, of course, you know, everything they say, just dishonest," said host Joe Scarborough. "He knows Bob Woodward's alive, and he was, you know, had a lot of the concerns Bob Woodward had."

Eight years ago Vance tweeted out some of those concerns, saying God expects better from Americans than to support Trump, but now he's running alongside him for vice president.

"This evolution, if we want to call it that, this change over time has been stunning, but it's not a surprise," said co-host Willie Geist. "He knows the way to Donald Trump's heart is outright flattery every moment of the day. Echo the lie, amplify the lies, say what your boss wants to hear, get what you want, and he knows that he is the heir, he believes now, to the MAGA crown. That if Donald Trump loses this time around, he's still there, perhaps as he tried to present in that debate, a more palatable version of Donald Trump going forward."

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