← The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
Lawrence: Trump, the stupidest and most cowardly president in American history, backed down again
00:42:19
Tonight on The Last Word: Stocks rally after Donald Trump backs down and delays EU tariffs. Also, Trump seeks to end all federal contracts with Harvard University. Plus, Trump says Vladimir Putin is “playing with fire.” And Wisconsin voters reject Elon Musk’s political influence. Robert Reich, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Timothy Snyder, and Ben Wikler join Lawrence O’Donnell.
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MSNBC Announcer
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Lawrence O'Donnell
All the stories that we're covering are.
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MSNBC Correspondent
Live and happening as we speak.
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Watch your favorite shows live.
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MSNBC Correspondent
What's happening right now is a hostile takeover of the US Government.
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Read live blogs and in depth essays and listen to coverage as it unfolds. Go beyond the what to understand the why. Download the app now@msnbc.com app and once.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
Again Donald Trump Backed down it should come as no surprise to faithful viewers of this program that the most cowardly president in American history backed down again. The stupidest president in American history backed down again. The only convicted felon to serve as President of the United States backed down again. The president who got caught publicly lying over 35,000 times in his first term backed down again. And in backing down again, Donald Trump once again became a loser. In this case, a loser in a contest that he started. A contest that didn't have to happen were it not for the rank in ignorance of Donald Trump. Donald Trump has already lost his trade war and he is relentlessly stupid enough to continue to draw lines in the sand of his trade war that get blown away by his own foul, intemperate breath. And in Donald Trump's war against the greatest university in the world, Donald Trump is going to lose. The history of Donald Trump's war against Harvard will not be written during Donald Trump's presidency and in Harvard's history, Donald Trump's war is a speck. Donald Trump's last year in the presidency will be Harvard's 393rd year. Donald Trump's presidency will be the equivalent of roughly 1% of the years. Harvard University has already been with us as America's oldest university, founded in 1636, long before anyone ever dreamed of a country called the United States of America. Long after Donald Trump is gone, the world class historians at Harvard University and elsewhere will be defining Donald Trump's presidency as the most corrupt American presidency in history. The Trump presidency will be recorded in history as a failure, because nothing Donald Trump does in the presidency will live after him. The policies are all reversible and will be reversed, and many of them will be reversed in the courts during the Trump presidency. And then there are the Trump policies that are reversed by Donald Trump himself. Flip flop used to be the worst thing a politician could be associated with in a headline other than a sex scandal or bribery. Then came Donald Trump, who flip flops more than any politician in American history. No American politician has ever reversed himself more frequently than Donald Trump, or more quickly than Donald Trump, or more fully, predictably than Donald Trump, the weak willed Donald Trump, the foolish Donald Trump. And Donald Trump's predictable reversing of himself has now created a new phrase with the acronym taco, as in Trump always chickens out. And that's what the usually conservative British newspaper, the Financial Times now says about Donald Trump. Trump always chickens out. The New York Times reports that the phrase is now sweeping through Wall Street. Trump always chickens out quote has been adopted by some to describe the pattern in which markets tumble after Mr. Trump makes tariff threats, only to rebound just as sharply when he relents and gives countries more time to negotiate deals. The market dropped on Friday when Mr. Trump threatened to ratchet up tariffs to 50% on goods from the European Union, a move that could have done severe economic damage to Europe and the United States. But at the time, some analysts like Salman Fiedler of Berenberg, a German bank, said it wouldn't last. Wild threats by Trump are not unusual, he wrote in a note that day. Given the damage the US Would do to itself with this tariff, he will probably not follow through. These retreats are so frequent that investors should rationally expect them, paul Donovan of UBS Wealth Management wrote, echoing me, by the way, as stocks in Europe jumped Monday morning and as US Markets, which were closed on Monday for Memorial Day, joined the rally on Tuesday, Chris Beauchamp of IG Group summed it up with Taco trade triumphs once again. So I guess one place I could be making more money is as a UBS Wealth Management analyst, because long before Paul Donovan of UBS wrote, these retreats are so frequent, investors should rationally expect them. I said exactly that, essentially that on this program weeks ago I told Wall street, where obviously no one was listening, that Donald Trump will not carry out any of his tariff threats from that point forward. And there is no reason to sell any stock when Donald Trump threatens a tariff, as he did last week, threatening a new 50% tariff on everything from Europe, a tariff that would be completely illegal and ruled illegal in federal courts. But the stock market panicked again about that 50% tariff on European goods. And then Donald Trump completely flip flopped over the holiday weekend. Seeing where the world markets were going over this, he reversed himself so he wouldn't have another stock market crash on his hands that he would be blamed for. And of course, the stock market came back up. Donald Trump is too stupid to stop threatening new tariffs, and he is too cowardly to actually carry out those threatened tariffs against a Wall street reaction that would involve a crashing stock market. And so the American stock market should now build all of that into its reaction to Trump tariff threats. The European Union knows the tariff threats are nonsensical, and that's why they have given Donald Trump exactly nothing in negotiations. And after giving Donald Trump exactly nothing in negotiations, Donald Trump immediately announced that he was delaying his 50% tariffs on all goods coming from Europe until July 9th. That's the new lie. July 9th. And I can promise the stock market right now that on July 9, nothing will happen. Donald Trump will not impose a 50% tariff on all goods coming from Europe on July 9 or ever. And instead of letting the issue fade away and pretending that he's actually achieved something with his trade war, Donald Trump will foolishly remain in the threat and retreat cycle for who knows how long. July 9 is 482 days before the next congressional election. House Republicans and Senate Republicans will continue to be sickened every time Donald Trump threatens a new tariff as the election approaches and the stock market crashes once again. And you should expect that even Donald Trump will understand that he has to shut up about crazy tariffs a year from now, in the middle of the summer before the next congressional election. And so eventually, Donald Trump will shut up about his crazy and illegal tariffs and just pretend that he's achieved something with his failed trade war. And every one of Donald Trump's fake tariff threats from now through July 9th and beyond should be taken for what it is politically a gift to the Democrats running against the tariff supporting House and Senate Republicans. And the Trump tariff clowns who work for Donald Trump will continue to give the Democrats the gift of talking about skyrocketing prices that would be absolutely intolerable, as if they're a joke. Today, the most publicly idiotic economic adviser to a president in history went on cnbc where he admitted that Donald Trump could push the price of an iPhone up to $3,500 and no one should dare complain about it.
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Robert Reich
Everybody is trying to make it seem like it's A catastrophe if there's a tiny little tariff on them right now.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
A tiny little tariff. That disgraced buffoon who has never made it above the rank of associate professor of economics and has never had tenure in an economics faculty thinks that triple the cost of an iPhone, that is just a tiny little tariff. Of course he doesn't actually think that, but he's willing to smile his way through any lie that he needs to tell on any day on TV about the the Trump illegal and crazy tariffs. And while he's telling those lies and smiling about them, he, even as an economic adviser to Donald Trump, doesn't have the slightest idea when Donald Trump is going to flip flop next on his own tariffs. He could be on TV defending a tariff that Donald Trump has revoked while he's speaking. And he'll keep smiling because that's his job. The clownish smile on TV lying about the Trump tariffs on Friday, just for the heck of it, Donald Trump, in a childish tweet threatened to raise the price of a thousand dollar iPhone by $250, saying without the slightest grip on reality, I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India or anyplace else. If that is not tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the United States. Okay, that is not the case. None of the iPhones are made in the United States now. So that tariff should be applied right now. And of course none of them have a 25% tariff. No iPhone has a 25% tariff on it now. And none of them are scheduled to be made in the United States. And so that is a fake threat. And some in the stock market actually fell for it. Apple, Apple stock dropped 3% that day, but only 3%. So that tells you that almost everyone on Wall street knew that that is a childish lying threat by Donald Trump. We're now three months away from the traditional September introduction of the new iPhones, which is also the traditional beginning of the Christmas shopping season in America. And even a politician as stupid as Donald Trump is not going to raise the price of iPhones 25% going into the Christmas shopping season. $250 price increase on iPhones by Donald Trump himself is not going to happen. Donald Trump is going to continue issuing those kinds of threats because he's trying to pretend that he hasn't already lost his trade war. The casualties in Donald Trump's trade war so far are all in the United States. Donald Trump's foolishly high illegal 30% tariff that is still being imposed on all goods from China after Donald Trump reduced that tariff from the utterly insane and obviously insane level of 145%. Those tariffs are still at 30% doing damage to American businesses and could kill some businesses and will definitely kill Americans American jobs. And after Americans lose those jobs, Donald Trump and Republicans are making sure that after they've been forced into unemployment by Donald Trump's tariffs, they will not be able to get health care in this country because they will not be able to enroll in Medicaid and receive health care coverage. That is the two pronged attack on American workers currently underway in this country, the already job killing Trump tariffs and the health care stealing Trump Republican budget bill that passed the House of Representatives and might or might not pass the Republican Senate. The New York Times is reporting on a Vermont small business called Bevo, owned by Karina Hamill and Robbie Ringer that sells personal water containers people use for drinking containers. The Times reports the duties, which is to say tariffs on Bevo's bottles are higher than 30% because of the material they're made from and how they are classified by trade officials. Vivo bottles that are not insulated are subject to tariffs that add up to 47% and the rate for insulated bottles is 37%. Mr. Trump has frequently said foreign businesses that ship products to the United States pay the tariffs. But in reality importers like Bevo pay the duties to the federal government when the goods arrive at a US Port. It's still a massive impact to the cash and it still requires reworking a whole new strategy, Mr. Ringer said. When he was in China, Mr. Ringer asked to see Bevo's products in the warehouse, which is something he has done before to check manufacturing quality. But this time he had to clamor over pallets in the aisles to see the bottles. The warehouse was crammed full of goods that customers had delayed shipping to avoid paying the 145% tariffs. On May 12, when Mr. Trump reduced tariffs on China for 90 days, Ms. Hamel and Mr. Ringer concluded they could now afford to pay the tariffs On a small shipment, 7,624 of the 30,000 bottles they had promised to buy, they will pay $24,436 in duties and on the shipment, compared with an estimated 3,645 at the rates that existed before Mr. Trump took office. So that's who pays the tariffs. Karina Hamill and Robbie Ringer in Vermont paying $24,436 in Trump tariffs to the treasury of the United States. Just like taxes, just like a sales tax. That is what Donald Trump's smiling economist calls a tiny little tariff. That's a tiny little tariff that could kill businesses small and large all over the United States. Donald Trump is a loser who is going to continue to lose, and he is going to continue to hurt Americans while he's losing. Leading off our discussion tonight is Robert Reich, who served as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. He's a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and co founder of Inequality Media. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Professor Reich. I want to begin at that juncture of these two policies, the Trump tariffs, seeing what they're doing to that business in Vermont, seeing what they're doing to truck drivers in California, at the Port of Los Angeles, who's whose work hours have collapsed, whose ability to earn income have collapsed, intersecting with a Republican budget bill that is going to take healthcare away from people, impose a work requirement. So if you're not working and you don't have an income, you can't get Medicaid coverage anymore. And you can't work because Donald Trump's tariffs have thrown you out of work. This is a vicious intersection that's being constructed by these two policies.
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And remember Lawrence, he was elected because many Americans, particularly working class Americans, felt that prices were too high, the economy was not working for them. Now, it's going to be a major magic show for him and for his Republican acolytes in the House and Senate to try to sell both the tariffs and also this extraordinary budget, if it gets through the Senate in terms of it robbing essentially from the poor and working class, Medicaid, Veterans Administration, all kinds of nutrition assistance in order to provide the wealthy, the super wealthy, a great big fat tax cut, another big tax cut, such as like the first one he delivered, that generates a debt for the United States of 4.8 more trillion dollars of debt. Now, this is going to be an interesting experiment because it is possible, given the con man that Donald Trump is, it is certainly possible that he can sell working class Americans on the notion that they are not paying all this more for this product or that product or everything else coming from around the world. And this budget, even though it gives a major, major tax break to the rich, is actually good for them. But I'm not sure it's going to be very hard to sell these things. And if the Democrats are smart enough and bold enough and clear enough and loud enough, they ought to be able to show and demonstrate to the working Americans that they are being shafted twice over by Donald Trump.
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Robert Reich, thank you very much for starting off our coverage tonight.
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Thanks, Lawrence.
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Thank you. And coming up, Donald Trump's illegal war on America's oldest and most distinguished university. Congressman Jamie Raskin, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, joins us next.
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MSNBC Correspondent
Host of the Briefing We've never experienced a moment like this in our country, and it leaves us all with a choice. Are we going to speak out or are we going to be pressured into silence? I've worked for presidents. I've been face the tough questions from the press and even threats from the Kremlin. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can't cower to bullies. You don't need to be hopeless. We have our voices and I will continue using mine.
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MSNBC Announcer
The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Tuesday through Friday at 9pm Eastern on MSNBC.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
No president in history has violated more contracts than Donald Trump. He already had that distinction before he became president of the United States. That's why Donald Trump was sued so often for violating contracts in business and refusing to pay creditors in violation of those contracts. Then this year, as president, Donald Trump decided to violate every trade agreement that the United States has in the world. During Donald Trump's first presidency, the Trump administration negotiated a new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. And the first country of those three to violate that contract was the United States of America this year when Donald Trump violated the contract that that he co wrote with Canada and Mexico and then signed. Donald Trump's signature was a pledge to live by the trade contract that he negotiated with Mexico and Canada and he couldn't do it. He violated it this year. Donald Trump is violating countless contracts that companies have with the United States government. A contract is binding on both sides, but Donald Trump doesn't believe that. Donald Trump just violates them. And now Donald Trump wants to violate contracts with Harvard University for work that the government of the United States United States asked Harvard University to do. The government has been asking Harvard University to conduct important research work for the government since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt enlisted the President of Harvard University at the time, James B. Conant, to oversee the invention and development of an atomic bomb during World War II designed to win World War II. Harvard's President Conant, a world class chemist, did not go to President Roosevelt, a graduate of Harvard College and ask him for research money for an atomic bomb. President Roosevelt asked Harvard to do that. That project spread to Columbia University and other universities around the country with secret funding at the time from the government. And after World War II, the government consistently saw value in asking our world class research universities to try to improve our lives through medical research and other scientific research. And that's why you're able to get an MRI today to solve medical mysteries in your body that could not be solved without Harvard's contribution to the invention of MRIs. Donald Trump now wants to take over Harvard University because Donald Trump has declared himself to be America's most sensitive person about antisemitism. Donald Trump is claiming that he is more opposed to and more sensitive to antisemitism than the Jewish President of Harvard University, Alan Garber. Most of the presidents of Harvard in the 21st century have been Jewish while no American president has been Jewish. You would think that Donald Trump, according to his perverse formulations about antisemitism, should be trying to investigate antisemitism in the United States House of Representatives where they have never had a Jewish speaker of the House, not one. And you would think, according to Donald Trump's perverse formulations about antisemitism, that he should be investigating anti Semitism on the Republican side of the United States Senate because they have never had a Jewish majority leader. Republican Jewish majority leader. Only the Democrats have had a Jewish majority leader. So according to Trump's perverse formulation, only the Democrats should be able to investigate the apparently intense anti Semitism of the Republicans in the Senate and That is how stupid Donald Trump's thinking is. But that is not where he has chosen to apply it. Donald Trump has chosen to claim the mantle of America's greatest antisemitism investigator and prosecutor by going after the domain of the Jewish president of Harvard University. Today, in an interview with npr, Harvard University President Alan Garber said this about Donald Trump's intention to violate every research contract the federal government has with Harvard University.
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Jen Psaki
Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country. Because after all, the research funding is not a gift. The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work that the research work that the federal government designates as high priority work. It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted. Shutting off that work does not help the country, even as it punishes Harvard. And it is hard to see the link between that and, say, antisemitism.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
Politico is reporting that Donald Trump now wants to examine all social media postings by every foreign student at all of America's colleges and universities before granting them student visas. So if you're a foreign student applying for a student visa in the United States, you better not have any social media postings calling the American people scum, and you better not have any social media postings calling America's judges monsters or Donald Trump won't let you into this country. You better not have any social media postings calling the United States Congress scum or calling the President of the United States scum. In other words, if you're a foreign student, don't think you can dare to say in social media postings what Donald Trump said yesterday. Calling the American people scum if they didn't vote for him, calling every Democratic member of the House of Representatives in the Senate and President Biden scum. Donald Trump did that yesterday. Calling federal judges monsters who are on the side of murderers. Donald Trump did that yesterday. The same federal judges who provide over the swearing in ceremonies at our citizenship ceremonies and for new citizens in this country. Donald Trump called those judges monsters. If you're a foreign student and you call a judge appointed by Donald Trump a monster, you will never get into this country. If you are a foreign student and you call Donald Trump scum or Republican voters scum, you will never get into this country. If you are a foreign student, you are applying to a country where the president can call you scum, can call anyone scum, can call judges scum, can call judges monsters, and then claim moral superiority over the principled and scholarly and now, heroic president of Harvard University, Alan Garber. Joining our discussion now is Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. He's the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and he's a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Former an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the Harvard Law School. Congressman Raskin, from a constitutional standpoint, I know you're a constitutional law professor. What do you see in this attack on Harvard? And by the way, I invite you to take note of it from any perspective you bring to it.
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Jamie Raskin
Well, it's pure speech retaliation. The president essentially tried to take over Harvard's curriculum, take over its hiring practices for faculty, and take over student admissions. And when that was too much for Harvard and President Garber said no, then they decided to unleash this second wave of sanctions against Harvard by trying to eliminate all of these contracts that the federal government had entered into with Harvard in order to get the value of those contracts. But all of it is speech discrimination and speech punishment. So it's just a naked assault on the First Amendment and on academic freedom, which is protected by the Constitution.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
As we go forward, Harvard's obviously litigating all of this. The federal government said that Harvard did not respond to its demands for information. Harvard said, we did respond to their demands for information. And now they're asking for things that are far beyond the scope of what they should be allowed to ask for. What are you looking for in the way this will unfold in court?
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Jamie Raskin
Well, the curious thing is that the administration is essentially accusing Harvard of things that could be very easily litigated and adjudicated through Title 6 and the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. Except that the Trump administration has been busily dismantling the Office of Civil Rights. They're trying not. They're trying to defund it, they're trying to disable it as much as possible, but then to usurp the its functions for rhetorical purposes against this or that disfavored institution. If anti Semitism is really the problem motivating Donald Trump, he should start with his own administration, specifically Ed Martin, the guy he wanted to be the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who he was forced to withdraw because it turned out that he had concealed the fact that he had appeared 150 different times on Russian state propaganda networks, but also because he had been actively embracing a neo Nazi Hitler impersonator who draws a Hitler mustache on himself and had described him not only as a good friend, but as a great man and a great leader. So his consolation prize when they didn't want to go through an actual confirmation hearing in the Senate was he was just named to be the U.S. pardon attorney. And I think his first act of pardon came out over the weekend when they pardoned a sheriff in Virginia who was selling deputy sheriff ships to a bunch of rich people who didn't want to be stopped by the police and wanted to be able to lord their deputy sheriff position over other people in the community. So we're gonna have to keep very close track of what he's doing. But if Trump really cares about antisemitism, start by purging the anti Semites and neo Nazi embracers in your own administration.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
We're going to have to be very patient, I think, for that to happen. Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
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Jamie Raskin
You bet. Thank you, Lawrence.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
Thank you. Coming up, Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin is, quote, playing with fire. In response, Vladimir Putin threatened World War three. That's next with Professor Timothy Snyder. Playing with fire. Donald Trump finally used the title of my second book, Playing with Fire, in a tweet. But unfortunately for my book sales, the tweet was about Vladimir Putin. After tweeting this weekend that Vladimir Putin, who Donald Trump previously called a genius, quote, has gone absolutely crazy, end quote. Today, Donald Trump said this. What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia. And I mean really bad. He's playing with fire. So there's Donald Trump, in effect, confessing to being Vladimir Putin's protector. Vladimir Putin, like everyone else in the world, did not react like someone who is in any way afraid of Donald Trump or in any way respects Donald Trump or believes his threats. Vladimir Putin sent out a spokesperson to say, I only know of one really bad thing, World War Three. I hope Trump understands this. So there's Vladimir Putin trumping the Trump claim that he's playing with fire by delivering a World War three threat directly to Donald Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this yesterday. Over 900 attack drones launched against Ukraine in just three days, along with ballistic and cruise missiles. There is no military logic in this, but it is a clear political choice of Russia the choice to keep waging war. The Wall Street Journal is reporting. On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. germany, France, and the UK would no longer impose range restrictions on Ukraine's use of weapons supplied by Western allies, meaning it could target military positions deeper into Russia. In response, a Putin spokesperson said if such decisions are made. They will absolutely go against our aspirations to reach a political settlement and the efforts being made within the framework of the settlement. This is a rather dangerous decision. Joining us now is Timothy Snyder. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers on freedom and on tyranny. Professor Snyder, that last reply by Russia claiming to suddenly hide behind a peace process that it is actually boycotting and no one should be talking about increasing the range of weapons from Ukraine. While we're in the middle of this peace discussion, what is it that we're seeing unfold here now?
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Robert Reich
Well, as you say, there is no meaningful peace process. The Russians sent second and third tiered people to Istanbul. They've made absolutely zero sign that they're interested in peace. On the contrary, they continue to do what they've been doing for three and a quarter years, which is kill Ukrainian civilians, carry out a war of aggression, carry out war crimes. I think that the main thing to understand here is that what the Russians are doing is essentially playing Trump. Trump has given them thing after thing that they want. And every time there's the lightest signal that there might possibly be a variation in Trump's pro Russian position, they just remind him who's the boss.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
And how does Trump get the message that they're the boss just by Vladimir Putin defying him?
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Robert Reich
Well, notice that Trump speaks directly to Putin and Putin replies by way of a spokesperson as though Trump doesn't even have the rank to speak directly to Putin. Notice that Trump for months and months has been behaving as though there's some kind of peace process. And the Russians not only disregard this and they escalate the war against civilians. And for those of us who are paying attention to Russian media, laugh at him daily about all of this, they think of Trump as their guy. When Trump tweets, or whatever it's called on his own social media thing, when Trump tweets that he's been Russia's protector thus far, he's basically confessing, as you say. He's saying, I am your guy. I've been protecting you thus far. And the Russians have zero reason to think that he'll ever do anything else. I mean, Trump, you know, this administration talks a big heart, tough game when it comes to, like, foreign graduate students, as you've been discussing, but they do not seem to have the gumption to, to rally the most basic policy towards Russia, which would be primary and secondary sanctions and weapons deliveries to Ukraine. It's as simple as that. If you want the war to end, you have to change the structures.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
What. What might happen as a result of this elimination of a range limit on the use of European weapons in Ukraine?
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Robert Reich
I mean, it's just so the strange thing about this war is that the aggressor, Russia has been able to set a lot of the rules of engagement, which to my knowledge is unprecedented in the history of warfare. Just to be clear, there have never been any range limitations on Russian missiles. They've been attacking every square centimeter of Ukraine since the war started from launch facilities and, you know, using aircraft launched from all over Russia. There's never been limits on them. So why exactly were there supposed to be limits on Ukraine? It never really made any sense. So I don't expect any consequences of this, except it puts the Ukrainians in a somewhat better position to defend themselves. Look, the Russians know this. They know they've put us in a position which is abnormal. They know that it's very weird that the Americans set these limitations on themselves or that the Germans did. I think what we're seeing is a healthy sign.
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Lawrence O'Donnell
Professor Timothy Snyder, thank you very much for joining our discussions tonight. Thank you. And coming up, he polls terrible. People hate him. That's how one Republican insider described Elon Musk and why Elon Musk has been forced out of a public role in the Trump White House. But voters in Wisconsin also played a key role in what is being described as the decline and fall of Elon Musk. That's next.
- [38:35]
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- [39:07]
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- [39:38]
MSNBC Announcer
It's the weekend on MSNBC with three new dynamic hosts Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Daniels and Jackie Alemany. And in the evening, it's the Weekend Prime Time with Eamon Mohadin, Katherine Rampel, Elise Jordan and Antonia Hilton join them as they offer analysis on the week's most important events and set the agenda for the week ahead. The weekend at 7am eastern and the weekend primetime at 6pm eastern Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC.
- [40:10]
Lawrence O'Donnell
He's finished, done, gone. He polls terrible. People hate him. That is what Elon Musk's adventures in politics have cost him, according to a Republican operative speaking to Politico giving them that quote in an article titled why has Elon Musk Disappeared from the Spotlight? An answer to that question was sitting right in front of me today when stuck in traffic behind a Tesla wearing this sticker Vintage Tesla Pre Madness Edition. The owner of that car made Elon Musk rich enough to become the biggest political financial contributor in history. After becoming the richest person in the world on Tesla, Sal Elon Musk used the money that he made from America's environmentally conscious liberals to then try to destroy everything that those Tesla drivers support. Environmentally conscious liberals are now turning against Tesla, CNBC reports. Tesla sales are down 49% in Europe in the month of April, even though electric car sales rose 34% in Europe at the same time. And now Elon Musk is claiming to be pulling back from politics now that he has committed what stock analysts called brand sabotage against his own electric car company. And the people who really drove Elon Musk into public political retreat are the voters of Wisconsin, that Republican operative told Politico. He's finished, done, gone. He polls terrible. People hate him. He'd go to Wisconsin thinking he can buy people's votes, wear the cheese hat, act like a 9 year old. It doesn't work. It's offensive to people. Elon Musk turned a Wisconsin election that was too close to call into a 10 point win by the Democrat. It was an election for state Supreme Court justice, which Elon Musk turned into the most expensive judicial election in American history by pouring $25 million into the campaign to try to defeat the candidate backed by the Democratic Party. Since then, Donald Trump has publicly retreated from Elon Musk, Politico reports. In February and March, Trump posted about the Tesla CEO an average of roughly four times per week since the beginning of April, the president hasn't mentioned Musk once. On Truth Social in an article titled the Decline and Fall of Elon Musk, the Atlantic reports the result of Elon Musk's public madness as that Tesla sticker calls it Musk's net worth fell, his companies tanked in value, and he became an object of frequent goss gossip and ridicule. No one in the Democratic Party did more to fuel the decline and fall of Elon Musk than our next guest, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wickler. He will join us after this break. Tonight's last word goes to the person who defeated Elon Musk. Joining us now is Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wickler. Ben, you're seeing the decline and fall of Elon Musk. As they reported in the Atlantic, it all started with you in Wisconsin, with Wisconsin voters and that judicial election.
- [43:27]
Ben Wickler
Susan Crawford defeated Brad Schimmel, but she also defeated the richest man in the world because she and her campaign, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, are allies. And 1.3 million voters in Wisconsin, which to put it in perspective, is not just the most voters that have ever voted in a Supreme Court election for any candidate in Wisconsin. It's more voters than any Republican candidate, candidate for governor has ever earned in a November election. All those voters turned out to defeat Brad Schimmel and Elon Musk and asterisk Donald Trump as well. And they sent an absolutely clear message, which is that you cannot buy American democracy, which was Elon Musk's entire goal. He was looming over the country. He was trying to not only buy the Supreme Court race, but to show every Republican candidate that they had to embrace everything Donald Trump stood for or he would come and get them. But if they did everything Trump wanted, then he would bankroll their victory. He wanted to send that message. But instead what he showed is that that way lies ruin and devastation. And the rest of the Republican Party had better learn that fast or they're going to have the exact same outcome that Brad Schill has, whether or not Elon Musk is there in his cheese hat trying to spread million dollar novelty checks and debase American democracy.
- [44:44]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Did you think Washington Republicans, you know, on election night, the next day, when you saw that total and you saw a race that was too close to call, became a runaway partially because of Elon Musk. Were you surprised that Washington Republicans turned their backs on Musk apparently as quickly as they did after that?
- [45:03]
Ben Wickler
Well, here's the thing that struck me. Elon Musk had been saying starting in November after Trump's victory, that he would go after Republicans who didn't fall in line with Trump, that he would bankroll primary challengers against Democrats who got in Trump's way. He was Trump's enforcer He was the muscle. His political money would sweep away any opposition. And Republicans were falling in line even as Elon Musk did things that were hideously remain hideously unpopular. Shutting down Social Security offices, shutting down cancer research, going after things that are supposed to be sacred in American politics. All these Republicans didn't make a peep, at least on the record. The second it became clear that Elon Musk had the Midas touch in the cautionary tale sense of destroying everything he touches and making it toxic and inedible, all the food that he wanted to eat. As soon as that became clear, I think a lot of Republicans realized that they needed to back away. And they're cracking up over this Medicare cut exactly in the way that Elon Musk and Donald Trump hoped they wouldn't. This is a triumph for democracy against oligarchy, and it's the beginning of the.
- [46:07]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Blue wave of 2026 according to these articles about Musk. Now, your message from Wisconsin was very clearly delivered and effective with Republicans in Washington. Washington, Ben Wickler, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
- [46:20]
Ben Wickler
Thanks so much for having me.
- [46:22]
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