MSNBC

Politico reporter Jake Sherman had a dire warning speaking to MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Wednesday night: the United States is probably about to have a prolonged government shutdown.

President Donald Trump vetoed the defense funding bill after telling Congress that he also refused to approve the COVID-19 stimulus and omnibus spending bill that was merged into one piece of legislation. While Trump's team negotiated the package, suddenly, the president indicated he didn't like it.

A senior prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller's team fears that President Donald Trump's new pardons essentially put the president above the law and guarantee that the Office of the Special Counsel is essentially powerless.

Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, Andrew Weissmann explained that the rule of law binds the Department of Justice when it decides who to prosecute and not to. The DOJ, he said, doesn't take into account the partisanship of the accused.

President Donald Trump's video rant and veto threat on Tuesday night threw a wrench in the deal between Democrats and Republicans on the government funding package and the next round of COVID-19 stimulus funding.

Democrats have wanted a larger payment for Americans for the last seven months following their passage of the HEROES Act. Despite nine months of negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steve Munchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) never participated in the talks. It wasn't until the very end that the White House seemingly bowed out and McConnell took over, reducing the checks to Americans to an embarrassingly low amount. The parties agreed on a $600 check.

Calling it a "bizarre night," MSNBC host Rachel Maddow addressed the veto threat from President Donald Trump along with his slate of pardons for people involved in the Mueller investigation and murderers of unarmed civilians in Iraq.

Maddow noted that along with the names of the people he was pardoning he also added names of those who endorsed the pardon as if to bring them in as accomplices in the pardons.

On Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," anchor Nicolle Wallace took former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) to task for the GOP's enabling of Trump's attacks on science and democracy.

"I think people like Dr. Fauci ... were undermined by Donald Trump every step of the way," said Wallace. "And speaking of Donald Trump, I want to ask you about his conduct, not just over the last four years but over the last 40 days. Why aren't there more Republicans screaming at the top of their lungs that he's doing damage to our democracy?"

President Donald Trump has been talking about delivering pardons to everyone like Christmas presents. But even that won't stop his top lawyer and friend, Rudy Giuliani, to escape any of his legal troubles.

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, former White House acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained Giuliani has a lot more to worry about.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough ripped Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for "going crazy" over one of Joe Biden's staffers using profanity but ignoring President Donald Trump's threats against democracy.

Rubio clutched his pearls over Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Biden's campaign manager and White House deputy chief of staff, calling Republicans "f*ckers" in an interview, but has so far remained silent over the president's attempts to overturn his election loss -- to say nothing of Trump's own profligate use of profanity.

President Donald Trump is starting to believe his own conspiracy theories about his election loss, according to a White House reporter.

Associated Press correspondent Jonathan Lemire told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the president is increasingly leaning on outsiders as his circle shrinks inside the White House, and those allies are feeding him wild claims about election fraud and unconstitutional remedies to his loss.

A former Republican congressman from Ohio was pulled up short on MSNBC early Sunday morning after he refused to acknowledge that former Vice President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, insisting instead there is evidence of voter fraud that need to be investigated.

During a discussion with MSNBC host Kendis Gibson, ex-Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) insisted over and over again that the "process" of contesting the vote totals by Donald Trump needs to continue as the Senate prepares to tally the Electoral College votes.

"There is a process, we need to follow a process," Renacci stated. The process does allow for the president to continue to look into this. There are many Americans who believe there was election fraud. I believe it needs to be looked into. We have a process: January 6th the House and Senate will make the final approval of the Electoral College and they also have the right to continue to look at this, as well, until January 6th."

"I think the process is occurring," he continued. "I know people hate some of this going on, but there's a lot of Americans who believe there was a problem with the election. "

"It's way too early in the morning for this sort of BS," host Gibson interjected. "No: we're beyond that process. The Electoral College has already voted. Four years ago, were you waiting until January 6th?"

"Absolutely," the former lawmaker shot back. "I was there four years ago. There was Democrats on the House floor who contested the election of President Donald Trump, I was there. It is a process and that's the problem in Washington, nobody wants to follow the process. We could get so much done if you allow the process to occur."

"Is Hugo Chavez involved in rigging this election?" Gibson joked in reference to an accusation made by a Trump lawyer.

"I didn't say that," Renacci replied.

"I'm asking you that," the MSNBC host persisted.

"No, I don't have the details," Renacci continued. "What I do know, there's a lot of people -- they're very uncomfortable. you can laugh and smile about it, but the truth of it is, there's a process. why can't we follow the process? where would you --."

"I'm laughing and smiling about it, it's otherwise to avoid crying about it because it's really a dangerous thing and a dangerous road we're going down here with this," Gibson cut in.

Watch below:

Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday afternoon with host Alex Witt, former George W. Bush White House aide Elise Jordan and former adviser to Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA), Kurt Bardella both expressed disgust and dismay with Donald Trump after he tweeted out a defense of Russia which has been credibly accused by the American intel agencies of a frightening cyberattack on the Pentagon among other crucial US government departments.

According to the president, "I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)."

Confronted by the tweets, Bardella -- who left the GOP due to Trump -- blamed the REpublicanm leadership for putting up with the president siding with Vladimir Putin over the United States.

"It's unconscionable," he began. "To be clear this is what the Republican Party has sold their soul to promote, to prop up, to help, to aid and abet. They sold out America so they can help this president and parrot Russian propaganda, over and over and over again. It's a complete betrayal of the oath of office and betrayal what they're supposed to stand for."

"Republicans are enabling a president and helping a president completely tear down the fabric of our country and now our institutions have been compromised, attacked with this unprecedented scale of the cyberattack and where are Republicans? Helping Donald Trump try to steal the election," he added.

According to Jordan, the president has lost his grip on reality.

"Call it what it is: more delusion from Donald Trump," the obviously angry Jordan stated. "This is not the behavior of a stable person who is able to exercise reason and logic. He is the biggest purveyor of misinformation from the biggest platform in the world, and it's dangerous."

Watch below:

During an MSNBC "Morning Joe" panel discussion on the reported massive cybersecurity attack on the U.S. government's computer systems, two experts on national security said it was exceedingly damaging with one panelist adding that Donald Trump gave the Kremlin the "green light" by cozying up to Vladimir Putin.

Led by host Joe Scarborough, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was buried under a wave of derision on Friday morning" "Morning Joe" after complaining about a vulgar term used by a Democratic staffer, with the MSNBC host sarcastically wondering if the Florida Republican has ever met Donald Trump.