MSNBC host Rachel Maddow appeared on Wednesday's episode of "The View" to promote her new book that details the American fight against fascism over the years – but she started with a discussion of the state of Congress.
The co-hosts began with questions about the battle for Speaker of the House and Maddow explained that even with a GOP speaker in place, the Congress is still a disaster.
"Even if you can fast-forward to the end of this process, whenever it ends with whoever wins, what does that person win?"she asked.
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"The worst job in America and they get to hold it for five minutes, then get fired and start again. There is nothing to look forward to for anybody here. It is a sad thing, but we also need a functioning Congress and I don't know how we're going to get it. They refuse to do anything with Democrats, so that means they have to do it amongst themselves. They are incapable of choosing a leader amongst themselves. So, we're just waiting for them to get it together."
She confessed that she is "past worried" when it comes to the idea that Congress has no leader. But if Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was elected to the post, Maddow said it would be a "big deal."
"It would be like if Trump was president and put Rudy Giuliani on the Supreme Court," said Maddow. "Or Sidney Powell. There was nobody more important in Congress to Trump's effort to overthrow the lawfully elected government of the United States than Jim Jordan. And so, to make him second in line to the presidency and in charge of Congress certifying the election results in 2024? I mean, that is, I mean, he's still in the running. Maybe it'll still be him. That will be a big deal if it happens in all the wrong ways. I'm hoping they go in a more moderate direction."
When the co-hosts asked about Donald Trump and a future presidency, Maddow warned that it's another decision that could end a lot of the tenets of American democracy.
"We have the party processes for a reason, but ultimately, if you listen to what Trump is saying, you don't sort of regard him as a spectacle, but listen to what he's saying, he's basically portraying a future for America, if he is put back in the White House, in which we don't have another election after that. Ever. Because 'the elections are all rigged.' That the democratic process can't be trusted, that Congress should just work for him. The Justice Department should just work for him. That's a strong man form of government."
She cited his previous threats about putting MSNBC on trial for "treason." Maddow also said that the Republican Party will have to reckon with what they've done to the country "for the rest of time."
As for Trump's trials, Maddow explained that the U.S. may never have put a president on trial before, but the Justice Department has gone after powerful people in politics.
"And you've had a lot of senators and governors and members of Congress who have gone to prison. It has happened," said Maddow. "It doesn't hurt us as a democracy, but people at the very top tend to bring a lot of political pressure to bear on the justice system to let them off, and that happens in the story that I tell in the book in 1944. All these people were on trial for sedition and the members of Congress got the prosecutor fired, and then they replaced the prosecutor and got him fired too."
She said that the DOJ cannot be subject to political pressure the way other parts of the government are. It must remain independent.
"So I worry about it, but I also feel like I want to know more about our history of this, so I understand better our capability for dealing with something that's put this much stress on. Don't put criminals in high office," she said simply.
See the interview clip in the video below or at the link here.
