Sarah Burris is a long-time veteran of political campaigns, having worked as a fundraiser and media director across the United States. She transitioned into reporting while working for Rock the Vote, Future Majority and Wiretap Magazine, covering the Millennial Generation's perspective during the presidential elections. As a political writer, Burris has had bylines at CNN, Salon.com, BNR, and AlterNet and serves as a senior digital editor for RawStory.com.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow began her Monday show by talking about authoritarian leaders and their attempts to fight the legal system.
First, it was former Vice President Spiro Agnew, who proclaimed that he'd done nothing wrong, he would not be indicted, and even if he was, he wouldn't resign. Eleven days later, he was indicted, and he resigned. She noted his speech was remarkably similar to the speech that Donald Trump gave over the weekend to CPAC.
"Can you get him to say, 'I am not a crook,' too?" she joked.
"So Republicans will have the power to remove prosecutors in the middle of their investigations and in the middle of prosecuting any particular case Republicans might not like for any reason," explained Maddow. "And to be clear, this has now passed the Georgia legislature as of tonight. A version of the bill passed the state Senate, and the House just passed it tonight. And the Republican governor there says he will sign it. He's a strong supporter of this. So, they're doing it. And I don't know. Maybe this would be easier to see if it were happening in another country. And, you know, maybe the leader of their party is still going to face criminal charges in other jurisdictions where he's under criminal investigation, like federally, or in New York state where he's under criminal investigation."
Maddow said about Trump being indicted or withdrawing, "Maybe he will, maybe he won't. None of us know. But in the one place where he is under criminal investigation, and his party is in full control of the state government, they've just decided for the first time in the state's history, that it is within their own power to remove prosecutors in the middle of their duties on their own say so. And, yes, this is a story about Georgia, and yes, this is a story about Trump and the potential charges he's facing. But this is a whole new step for us as a country."
Maddow explained that it was a new thing in a democracy for investigators to do this. It is a new thing for the US as a democracy.
"We've seen that before, and calling people names, and even picking off individuals in the law enforcement system to try and turn them into enemies," she continued. "As bad as that is, we've seen it all before. This isn't just verbally and politically delegitimizing the entities. Those are bad things to do, but this is more. Sticks and stones, right? But this is dismantling the way the legal system works, so it will no longer work against him. This isn't a resolution denouncing a prosecutor who might bring charges against Donald Trump. This is Republicans voting to give themselves the power to remove a prosecutor that acts in a way they don't like, as she's on the precipice of potentially bringing charges against him. This passed the Georgia state legislature tonight and will soon be on its way to the governor."
Trump proclaimed his innocence saying he wasn't called for questions by the special grand jury, thus he was exonerated.
