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'My God': Former White House lawyer says 'Donald Trump is in serious trouble' with new lawsuit
March 31, 2021 5:11PM ET
Former acting White House Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that the lawsuit in Washington, D.C. court saying former President Donald Trump is to blame for the deaths of officers attacked at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. is serious.
While Trump escaped being held accountable by the U.S. Senate, things are getting worse for him. In the lawsuit, details walk through how the president's supporters attacked, beat, and sprayed police officers. One officer died as a direct result of the attack on that day, and two other officers killed themselves in the days following the attack.
Trump attempted to rewrite what happened during a Fox News call-in over the weekend. In the call, Trump claimed that his supporters were hugging and kissing police officers. It contrasts with what was witnessed in every video taken at the scene by the attackers and security cameras.
"This is what the complaint said today: 'The officer attacked relentlessly, bleeding from a cut less than an inch from the eye, cuts, and abrasions on the face and hands and his body was pinned against a large metal door fending off attacks,'" Katyal read. "So when Donald Trump said they were kissing and hugging the guards, my God."
Wallace read more from the complaint:
"For several hours after the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump had the continuing ability to issue statements through traditional and social media but refused," the lawsuit says. "Refused to communicate anything to the followers that might discourage the assault and battery. Trump thereby ratified the conduct of the followers and ensured that the assaults on the officers lasted much longer, worsening the injuries of the plaintiffs and other officers. Late in the afternoon, Trump ratified the conduct, and again said that the election had been stolen by fraud and by announcing support, praise and love for his followers."
Wallace wondered if this put Trump in more significant legal trouble now.
"Absolutely," he agreed. "If you could short Donald Trump right now it would be a good time to do so. Everything you're saying, Nicolle, is absolutely right. This, in conjunction with new developments going on in New York, with respect to Weissberg and the like. Donald Trump is in serious trouble. The difference between now and the past is that the Republican Party and senior officials are inviting the trouble and saying there's merit to it."
See the full discussion below:
| absolutely. . >> luke you have i think the definitive piece of reporting of half a dozen contacts, associations, appearances with house republican members and some of the militia groups that we know to be under scrutiny and many charged since your reporting came out but i wonder what the reaction is of republicans in congress to a lawsuit like this with history as a guide is a natural alliance, republicans would say, between republicans and law enforcement. >> yeah. i think there's going to be a moment of soul searching for members of congress. shortly after the attack, there was widespread anger among the republicans i talked to on the hill about what happened and donald trump's role in it. in particular as you pointed out his lack of doing anything after the attack broke out kevin mccarthy famously had this very angry phone call with the president urging him to do more to call off the attack in that time, after those initial hours, though, it seemed many republicans made the calculation that it was -- needed to align themselves more deeply with donald trump because they heard from the base who was still very loyal to him. now we see new details come out. this is now the second officer going on record to say he was called the n-word by the mob, documented the racism and the personal anguish and mental strife that many officers went through. and will republicans now hear these messages and rethink the relationship with donald trump i'm not encouraged that that will happen. i don't think that that will happen but it's a test for each of them to consider this evidence and decide what to do about it. >> elizabeth, i'm going to apologize to you for what may have to be an interruption to take an important speech from president biden when it begins but i'd like to get you on the record on the lawsuit and the investment on the part of republicans to rewrite the truth and the history which is chronicled in "the new york times" and nbc news and many other new outleted as a here irveg and violent attack on the capitol and the country by trump supporters. >> it struck me as remarkable to hear eyewitness accounts of people that were attacked and while members of congress were themselves part of those that they were victims, too, but not nearly the way that the 140-plus law enforcement officers were victimized and to hear their firsthand accounts it is impossible to keep trying to revise this history. and so republicans have a problem on their hands they keep trying to move on and they have trump out there trying to rewrite this story as if they were hugging and kissing with police officers. that you hear people say, oh, these were just political protesters that crossed the line and trespassed but peaceful why this description, firsthand account from a law enforcement officer who in their training is trained to document something like this is anything but peaceful and clearly racist in what one of the officers faced so i don't know how the republican party given that this is just the first of what is expected to be many such lawsuits coming up, i think their strategy is wrong. you had that memo that came out today from axios saying that they need to lean into trump i think that's a bad strategy for them because this is not going away the republican accountability project will keep reminding voters if the congressman supported the big lie and did not condemn the insurrection the strategy needs to be rejecting trump and not cozying up to him. >> luke, everything they do seems to sort of have at its nexus the continued adherence and servitude to the big lie and pushing the laws disguised adds election security and there isn't a problem of systemic or widespread voter fraud blocking the formation of a a 9/11-style commission. is there a prospect of bipartisan commitment to an investigation like the 9/11 commission into the 1/6 attacks? >> i'm not encouraged that we'll have bipartisan buy-in into the january 6th attack the closest thing we have going on right now is in the senate. we have a series of hearings that both amy klobuchar, roy blunt and others are running looking into what went wrong on january 6th and some investigation over there but the house bill as proposed is stalled right now to get a 9/11-style commission off the ground i do think as you mentioned this ... |
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