← The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
Lawrence: Trump's stupidity has power so you can always feel the danger of that stupidity
00:39:53
Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump says kids might have “two dolls instead of 30” in response to tariffs. Also, The New York Times reports a declassified memo shows U.S. intelligence agencies rejected the Trump administration’s rationale for deportations. And Trump says “I don’t know” when asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Weissmann join Lawrence O’Donnell.
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Stay connected with the MSNBC app bringing you breaking news and analysis anytime, anywhere. All the stories that we're covering are live and happening as we speak. Watch your favorite shows live. What's happening right now is a hostile takeover of the US Government. 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 Sir David Frost gave us an intimate look at some of the most compelling personalities of our time. What makes people tick fascinates me. You can't fake interest. You can't fake curiosity. MSNBC Films presents a six part documentary series David Frost versus On the next episode, Jane Fonda. The war is being escalated in the most tragic, cruel way. Sunday at 9:00pm Eastern on MSNBC. Well, one day in the basement of the Hart Senate Office Building, my life changed after I filled out an address and Social Security number form for my first real job. And just when I thought I was finished with everything I needed to do in that otherwise forgettable moment in a forgettable looking office space, I was suddenly, and very much to my surprise, told to raise my right hand. I was then asked to repeat words that I had never heard before and have never forgotten. I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evas, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me, by God, defend the Constitution of the United States. The weight of those words changed me as I spoke them. I had no idea that everyone working in the Senate, from the receptionist to the Senators themselves, take the same oath of office, word for word. And in that instant, the job that I thought was going to be at most a temporary detour in my work life that I was probably ill suited for, was by far suddenly the most important job that I would ever have. I knew that day, in that moment with my hand raised, that the importance of my work was going to peak right there in the United States senate in my 30s. Because I knew that for the rest of my life I could not possibly have a job as important as defending the Constitution of the United States. I knew I would never have another job that required me to take an oath of office. I worked in the Senate for several years and was promoted to other jobs within the Senate. But that first oath, held throughout my career on the staff of the United States Senate. For the more committed Senate staffers, that oath holds for 30 years and sometimes longer, no matter how many times they change jobs within the Senate. And years later, in a TV drama that I created for NBC called Mr. Sterling, I gave those words to Josh Brolin for his oath of office scene as a new United States senator, with his father, played by the great James Whitmore, watching at home on tv. And in that scene, James Whitmore chose to silently mouth some of the words of the oath while holding back his tears. And I realized that James Whitmore expressed my feelings about the oath more eloquently than I ever could. And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. So help me God. The presidential oath of office is shorter, but it ends with those same words, defend the Constitution of the United States. The presidential oath is, I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Donald Trump has taken that oath twice and was obviously unmoved by it. He also obviously did not listen to it, and he has proved that many times, but never more clearly than in an answer to Kristen Welker's question about due process for immigrants on Meet the Press. Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? To which Donald Trump said, I don't know. Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? I don't know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. Only one president of the United States in American history could possibly have said, I don't know, to the question, do you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? Every president prior to Donald Trump knew the answer to that question. They always knew the answer is one word. Yes, every one of them. Joe Biden took an oath of office more than any other president. He took an oath of office 10 times, seven as a senator, twice as vice president, and once as president. And Joe Biden meant every word of that oath, including very much so the so help me God part of that oath. Joe Biden lived that oath of office. No president had more reverence for that oath than Joe Biden. And now, right after Joe Biden, we have a president who does not know what reverence is or what his oath means. Donald Trump talks about his predecessor in office more than any other president has ever talked about their predecessors. And in that same interview on Meet the Press, Donald Trump called President Biden, quote, a stupid person and a very stupid person. Donald Trump said at least one thing in the interview that was true. Well, prices are already going up on some popular items. Tires, strollers. This is such a dishonest interview already. He's right. He's right. Donald Trump is the dishonest part of that interview. It was already a dishonest interview made dishonest by Donald Trump, and it remained a dishonest interview in every reply Donald Trump gave. It was a standard Trump dishonest interview from start to finish, with Donald Trump lying at every turn and with Donald Trump proving once again that he is, to use his words, a stupid person. A very stupid person. Donald Trump talks repeatedly in the interview about how much money we were losing because of international trade. We have never lost a penny because of international trade. Donald Trump said, quote, we were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now think about how very stupid and dishonest that statement is. Donald Trump is counting every penny on imported products as lost money. That means every time we spend money, we are losing money. According to that theory, every one of Donald Trump's friends who arrive at his private club in Florida in their newest Mercedes or their newest Range Rover has, according to Donald Trump, just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars by buying that car. Donald Trump has always thought, apparently, that. That paying bills is losing money. That's why it's always been very difficult for people doing business with Donald Trump to get him to pay what he owes them. But according to Donald Trump's own economic theory of losing money, every time Donald Trump actually bought and paid for something like a building, he lost money. That is his very stupid economic theory of international trade. If I buy a Ford made in the United States, I haven't lost money. But if I buy a Kia made in South Korea, I have lost money, even if the Kia is cheaper than the Ford. What Donald Trump is incapable of understanding is that at the end of that transaction, my life is richer now because I have a car which I did not have before. I paid for that car. And now my kids can get to the soccer game and they can bring their friends with them, and there will be a lifetime of memories made because we own that car. It's going to take us to new places in our lives. We didn't lose the money by buying a car. According to Donald Trump, if you pay for something, you have lost money. That's his understanding of economics. And so every time Donald Trump says we were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China, every word of that is a lie. We have never lost a penny in international trade. The only way we could lose money is if we don't get the product that we paid for and that doesn't happen. That's not how international trade works. Because our system of international trade is in fact so reliable, so productive, and has made the world so productive and has made this country more productive and has made this country much richer than it was going to be. If it ever had tried to remain an isolationist economic island in the middle of the world that was thriving in international trade, the rest of the world of the world would be thriving in international trade. Donald Trump may have noticed that the nickname he got on this program last week, Donnie Two Dolls, after he said the stupidest thing any president of the United States has ever said about Christmas or dolls. Donald Trump apparently realizes how very stupid it was for him to say last week that little girls should just get used to having two dolls instead of 30 dolls that he imagines them all to have, since almost all of the dolls sold in the United States are made in China. Kristen Welker began the interview with that. And Donald Trump once again admitted that his tariffs are going to make prices go up, especially the price of dolls. I'm going to quote what you said. Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. Are you saying that your tariffs will cause some prices to go up? No, I think your tariffs are gonna be great for us because it's gonna make us rich. But you said some dolls are gonna cost more. Isn't that an. Sure. Some dolls are gonna cost more. Sure. That was something Donald Trump never admitted on the campaign trail when he lied about tariffs every time he spoke about them. And now every time Donald Trump talks about tariffs, he sounds stupider than the time before. This time in a line worthy of a mental competency ex a beautiful baby girl who he then said is 11 years old. Donald Trump is the only president in history who has decided exactly how many dolls a beautiful baby girl or an 11 year old girl needs or should ever have. And while he's at it, he's decided how many pencils kids should have. Here's Donald Trump trying desperately to sound smarter than Last week's Donnie 2 dolls who said the very stupid thing about dolls last week. And he ends up sounding somewhere far beyond very stupid. Once again, I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs, that's 11 years old, needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just we had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China. When you say they could have $3 instead of $30, are you saying you don't need Americans could see empty store shelves. No, I'm, no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying they don't need to have $30. They can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils, they can have five. So in Donald Trump's new math, the price increases are going to be so high that the amount of money that used to buy you 30 dolls before the Trump tariffs will now only buy you three. Donald Trump is saying that he's going to drive prices up by a factor of 10. And maybe the Trump kids have 250 pencils each, but I don't know anyone else who did. But I also know I couldn't possibly have gotten through a single grade of St. Brendan's Elementary School with only five pencils a year, if that's what he means. Do I get five pencils for my entire elementary school years or is it five a year? We don't know. The mastermind of the last Republican president, George W. Bush's election and reelection, Karl Rove, believes that Donald Trump becoming President Scrooge With 233 shopping days left before Christmas is very stupid and uniquely Trumpian stupid politics. I thought it was really problematic when he said, well, you know what, the kids, you know, those little girls at Christmas, they don't need 30 dolls. They can do it too. And if they have to pay a couple more bucks for them, you know, okay, well, it sounds like Mr. Scrooge and the ordinary American is like, wait a minute, I thought you were on my side. I didn't think you were on the side of, you know, saying, I need to do with less. You got plenty of money. I got to make mine stretch as far as I can. 94 year old Warren Buffet, who knows more about business and investing and economics than Donald Trump ever will. Warren Buffett, the self made billionaire who was not born rich like Donald Trump, told his Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend just how destructive Donald Trump is without ever saying the word Trump. There's no question the trade. Trade can be an act of war. And I think it's led to bad things. Just the attitudes it's brought out in the United States. I mean, we should be looking to trade with the rest of the world and we should do what we do best and they should do what they do best. I do not think it's a great idea to try and design a world where a few countries say, ha, ha, ha, we've won, and other countries are envious. So that product sitting in front of Warren Buffett there, Coca Cola, one of the huge beneficiaries of international trade. Something Donald Trump doesn't understand. That was a largely Republican audience, Omaha, Nebraska, of serious investors applauding what Warren Buffett had to say about Donald Trump's insane trade war. Donald Trump's latest utter insanity on tariffs is about movies. In a social media post yesterday, Donald Trump said, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce and the United States trade representative to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands. Now, that will never happen. It will allow for some interesting, fun TV interviews, I suppose, people from Hollywood who might be concerned about this, people in show business. But it is a complete waste of your time to even think about that very, very stupid statement by the President of the United States. No one at the Department of Commerce or the United States Trade Representative will even attempt to put that crazy idea in writing because it is impossible to put it in legal language for any purpose of a tariff. It is one of those idiotic Trump ideas that requires a depth of stupidity in its authorship that no one else in the history of American government possessed other than Donald Trump. Donald Trump's justification for this tariff idea on movies that will never be put in writing is that movies not made in the United States are. Are you ready for this? I think we can all say this together by now. A national security threat. Those are Donald Trump's words. Movies are, according to Donald Trump, quote, a national security threat. Dolls are a national security threat. Washing machines are a national security threat. The President of the United States believes all of those things are national security threats. And the president does have an extremely limited authority to impose tariffs in response to a product that presents a national security threat to the United States. That's why he's calling movies a national security threat. The Trump movie tariff is so insane that it will never even find its way into a federal courtroom to be struck down instantaneously as it would because it is impossible to even write it. Even the most sycophantic Trump clowns working for him to try to put that idiocy into legal language, even for them, is impossible. So Hollywood can relax. Movie theater operators don't have to worry. Moviegoers and movie watchers, there's nothing to see here. It's just more Trumpian nonsense. Never before in the immediate aftermath of the death of a pope have American politicians thought that the Pope's death is an opportunity for fun, a time to publicly make jokes about it. Sure, plenty of people make jokes about popes, including jokes about popes, dying comedians, that's who does that. Anyone can do that. But politicians don't, because politicians are careful people. They don't want to offend anyone. They're not funny people. Politicians are not comedians and they're not good at comedy. And Republicans are proving that in a totally new arena of what is now exclusively Republican comedy, and that is making jokes about the Pope and the papacy. Here's a couple of right wing Republican Catholics playing in the comedic field, opened to them to their glee by the death of a Pope. Now on Ex Vice President J.D. vance actually was very funny remarking, quote, I think it could take on a bit more if only there was a job opening for a devout Catholic. When does conclave start? I think the seventh. Here now with more is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr. Secretary, you got to admit that was pretty funny. I like that we thought about it, but you have to. It's an unmarried Catholic male. You don't have to be a priest. People don't know that any unmarried Catholic male can be pope. But I got married and I'm happily married, so. I know you are. And by the way, you're so funny. Sean Hannity got married and divorced and is on his way to getting married again. So he's going to miss out on that pope job too. And even if Marco Rubio had never married, the College of Cardinals would probably want someone with a stronger commitment to Catholicism than Marco Rubio, who was born Catholic, then as a kid when his family moved to Nevada, became Mormon, then became a Catholic again when they moved back to Florida, and then became an evangelical Christian as his political career was blossoming in a party favored by evangelical Christians and is now back to being a Catholic again. James David Vance, who has changed his name more than any vice president in history, changed his religion in 2019 to become a Catholic for the first time. Someone with only six years in Catholicism and no formal Catholic education might lack many Catholic Sentiments, including possible outrage. When Donald Trump tweeted this picture of himself as pope, Vice President Vance said, I'm fine with people telling jokes. That was his reaction to Donald Trump's version of himself as pope. It's a joke. No Republican has explained the joke. No Republican has attempted to explain what's funny about it. The religiously wandering Marco Rubio has said nothing about it. The Catholic Bishops of New York State, which includes the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, who has been very chummy with Donald Trump, said directly to Donald Trump publicly, there is nothing clever or funny about this image. Mr. President, we just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do. Do not mock us. Donald Trump is too ignorant to know this, of course, but there was a very strong strain of anti Catholic bias and bigotry in American politics from colonial times well into the second half of the 20th century. Mocking Catholics and mocking cardinals was acceptable in much of America through most of our history, and acceptable from politicians. But for politicians to do that today would make that politician a very stupid person. Remember, politicians are supposed to try to treasure voter support, which is why they don't live by the rules of stand up comedians. The religious outrage that Donald Trump invited with that picture is just very stupid politics. But what is most important about that picture has nothing to do with religion or Catholicism or the papacy. What is so horrifying about that picture is the mental capacity of the president that is on display in that picture. That is the picture that Donald Trump decided to display of himself around the same time that he was saying, I don't know when asked, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? That is not a picture of a man who has bad taste. Donald Trump has been a Bulgarian with bad taste his entire life. That is a picture that the 25th amendment was created to deal with. The 25th amendment was written to deal with a disabled president incapable of carrying out his duties because of physical or mental disability. Any other Vice president and cabinet for any other president would have immediately convened a discussion of invoking the 25th Amendment. If that president ever put out a picture of himself like that, the Vice president and the majority of the Cabinet can vote to remove the president from office and install the Vice president as the acting president as long as the president is disabled. The 25th Amendment was adopted in 1967. The authors of the amendment knew that establishing that the president was mentally disabled might not be easy. Might not be clear, but if Pope Paul VI had died in 1967 and President Lyndon Johnson put out a picture of himself as pope, like the one Donald Trump did, every member of Congress in both parties, every member of Lyndon Johnson's cabinet, would have unanimously agreed that the president had lost his mind. Today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump said the Catholics loved it. The only Catholic who claimed to like it was Donald Trump's vice president, who has been a Catholic only the last six of his four 40 years of life. The man who exhibits economic dementia every time he talks about tariffs said the Catholics loved it. The man who can't remember his oath of office, when asked about it in a television interview, said the Catholics loved it. After the bishops told Donald Trump directly, do not mock us, Donald Trump said the Catholics loved it. You can never know what stupidity is going to do next. It always surprises you. It's impossible to anticipate stupidity because it has no logic. It is disconnected from reality. I was not expecting Donald Trump to post a picture of himself as pope. How could I expect that? How could anyone expect that? Stupidity without power can be easily ignored. But when stupidity has power and you never know what it's going to do next, then you can't always, you can always, always feel the danger of that stupidity. And you have to live with the fear of not knowing what's next from someone who could hurt you. Donald Trump has hurt a lot of people. Donald Trump and Elon Musk literally, literally have taken food away from starving children in the middle of a famine in Sudan. They have taken life saving medicine away from people around the world, especially people in poverty in Africa. They have sent people who have committed no crimes to a prison in El Salvador. Donald Trump is doing all of this heaping cruelty on top of cruelty without really knowing what he's doing. And that picture of Donald Trump as pope, that picture of Donald Trump taking the job, that is at its very essence a permanent statement against cruelty in the modern world. That is a picture of someone who has no idea what he's doing and never will because he has never shown the mental capacity to understand his very simple oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States. We'll be right back. Donnie Two Dolls is trying to run away from that nickname by raising his quota on dolls to, in his generous moments, as many as five dolls. A young lady, 10 year old girl, 9 year old girl, 15 year old girl, doesn't need $37. She could be very happy with two or three or four or five. Joining us now is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She's the top Democrat of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She also serves on the Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, is it clear to you how many dolls you can buy for how many kids? I'm thinking about when my daughter was young. I mean, he's got to have a lot bigger Christmas tree there in Mar a Lago, which I'm sure he does, to fit 30 dolls, or as he clarified, 37 dolls or how many seven dolls under there? I mean, usually families may have one. Lawrence and right now they are more worried about affording groceries or can they afford their rent than they're about buying $30. And it's just another example of how out of touch he is and this White House is with what's happening with these tariff taxes, $4,000, a family putting small businesses under. That's what's happening right now. And you know, I've struggled, like during the campaign, I kind of struggled sometimes trying to get into the tariff subject and make it something that we all could understand on the same terms. I do think Donald Trump has done a great job with his doll's ex of making it so clear to people what this is. He admitted to Kristen Welker, oh, sure, the price of dolls is going up. His word, his answer to that was sure. And that's something you could never get out of him about tariffs before. And him using the doll example is wonderfully simple enough for people to understand what he's really doing to everybody. Lawrence he should visit the small independent Toy store in St. Paul, Minnesota, that doesn't know if they're going to be able to keep going or some of the small businesses that Senator Schumer and Senator Markey gathered together, including another one from Minnesota that talked about how they can't handle this right now. Our small business owner that was there was the entrepreneur of the year this year for Minnesota, Small Business owner of the Year. She literally was honored at the Small Business Administration today. And then she comes over to the People's House, to the Capitol and said, I'm not going to be able to keep my business going even though they're honoring me for Small Business Week, like, hey, let's put up the flags. And then they're doing things that are just devastating because these small businesses, which is why Senator Markey and Schumer have introduced this bill, Small Business Liberation act, they don't have the margins to afford these kinds of taxes. If they buy some of their stuff or a majority of their stuff from other countries. They don't have the phone number of the president to get an exemption. They're not invited to the treasury secretary special meeting at JP Morgan with big investors. So that's why one proposal, and I would prefer, of course, just to repeal these tariffs, because there's no emergency basis would be at least let the small businesses off the hook. And there's two ends of the destruction in the American economy, obviously making purchasing in the United States much more expensive. Virtually everything but the agriculture side of this is the export side. If you don't live near an agricultural community in this country, you might not be very aware of just how much grain and food we export from this country. And those exports are now being crushed in this trade war in the retaliation that other countries are bringing against the products that we are trying to sell around the world. That's right, Lawrence. And 20% of ag products that are grown or produced in the US Go to other markets. And they're very proud of that. And we've been trying to sell them in more and more markets. But now when we are stuck with this retaliatory actions, they're not going to have markets to sell them in. You know, 40% of biofuels, ethanol going up to Canada, a bunch of corn going to Mexico. You have got soybeans going to China. This is an international trade situation. And our farmers already hit with the headwinds of things like avian flu for poultry or input costs. And now this, too. I just don't understand. Remember what Donald Trump said. You're going to love this to these farmers. They're not loving it one bit. They're hating it. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Great to be on, Lawrence. Thanks. Thank you. Coming up, we have some breaking news at this hour. A Trump administration declassified memo shows that US Intelligence agencies have rejected Donald Trump's justification for deportations. That's Breaking News is next. As President Trump continues implementing his ambitious agenda. Follow along with MSNBC's newest newsletter, Project 47. You'll get weekly updates sent straight to your inbox. We with expert analysis on the administration's latest actions and how they're affecting the American people. The American people are basically telling the president that they are not okay with any of this. Sign up for the Project 47 newsletter@msnbc.com Project 47 Sir David Frost gave us an intimate look at some of the most compelling personalities of our time. What makes people tick? Fascinating. You can't fake interest. You can't Fake Curiosity MSNBC Films presents a six part documentary series David Frost versus On the next episode, Jane Fonda. The war is being escalated in the most tragic, cruel way. Sunday at 9pm Eastern on MSNBC. Citizens, since we each upgraded to Xfinity in our homes, the WI fi has been booming. It's fair to say our town has officially become a boom town. Mayor, will I be able to drop into multiplayer gaming battles with low lag? The lag won't be an issue, but your questionable skills may be. And what if I have hundreds of devices on the WI Fi? Purely hypothetical. Seems like a lot, but sure, hundreds of devices all booming. Together with the Xfinity Gateway. Yes, friends and neighbors, with Xfinity, the WI fi is booming. Restrictions apply. On Meet the Press. Donald Trump said there is no emergency at the southern border. Is the border now secure? Yeah, it's really secure. It's absolutely secure. When you say that, doesn't that just sound good? After being abused for years by an incompetent president that allowed people to pour through an open border, criminals from all over the world, murderers and insane people from mental institutions and insane asylums. Isn't it a beautiful thing when you say it's the most secure it's ever been in the history of our country? Isn't that a nice statement? Well, I'm curious to know what what it means. You declared a national emergency on the southern border. The order is still in place, by the way, even though you're saying the border, you know, means we have the most secure border we've ever had. Well, and I guess the question becomes, when will you know that the emergency is over? Are you planning to lift it at some point? Is it necessary? Because obviously the military is involved. Will you lift that emergency over? Well, the biggest emergency is the courts aren't allowing us to take. Really, we're going to talk about that. But talk to me first about this. It gives to me the emergency. Talk to me first about this. The border now is not the emergency. The border now is not the emergency. Joining us now is Andrew Weissman, former FBI general counsel, former chief of the Criminal Division, Eastern District of New York. He's also an MSNBC legal analyst. And Andrew, it seems to me Donald Trump just undermined his legal position on justifying so much of his deportation program by saying there is no emergency at the southern border. You know, it seems like about a New York minute ago we were saying the same thing about his statements involving Harv University. And I couldn't agree with you more here he is claiming in court all sorts of emergency powers, including that the reason he can use the Alien Enemies act is because the country is currently being invaded by a gang. And so, you know, again, if you're his lawyers who are showing up at the Department of Justice in court, you have to be sitting there going, you know, you may be angry that we're saying certain things in court, but, you know, what do you expect us to do when you're saying something that completely undermines the position we're taking? There's something else that's breaking news. New York Times reporting tonight that these spy agencies do not think Venezuela directs the gang. This is a classified memo. It says a newly declassified memo released on Monday confirms that U.S. intelligence agencies rejected a key claim President Trump put forth to justify invoking a wartime statute to summarily deport Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador. The memo says that the administration of the Venezuelan government does not control the criminal gang. And, Andrew, that is a key piece of that case. This is really important. There already is a judge who said this statute, the Alien Enemies act, does not apply, that the TDA is not an invading gang operating. But it's not enough that it's just an invading gang. It has to be operating on behalf of, of a foreign government. The DNI issued in April of this year, it's not old, it's new. And this year, something that says, exactly to your point, that the Maduro government is not directing TDA movement to and in the United States. So again, if you are the courts, you have to be so skeptical. You've seen a government that's denied due process. You've invoking a statute that has no factual basis when there actually has been a hearing where people get to challenge. Are they even in the group? The courts have said no. You have not proved it. This document is just one more reason that people should understand why due process is so necessary. Because here you have the government privately taking a position that is directly contrary to what is being said in court to the judges by the government. We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back with Andrew Weissman. Andrew Weissman is back with us. And Andrew, I'd like to go back where I began tonight. Do you remember the first time you took an oath of office? 1991, U.S. attorney's office here in New York City. It is such a palpable moment. You know, I was a young kid and the commitment to public service and the feeling of enormous responsibility is sort of overwhelming. That you are doing something beyond just yourself, that you're part of the government and your obligation to the public, I mean, it just weighs on you. I don't know anyone who didn't have the exact same and inconceivable at the time that there would be a president who says, I don't know, to the question of don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, which is in his oath? I mean, I sort of take the experience of like one prosecutor, but now you have that responsibility for the entire country. The idea that it wouldn't be something that would just weigh on you so much. The other thing is, I guess having been in the intelligence community, knowing how much this is life and death, your seriousness is such a part of that oath. So, yes, I can't say it's unbelievable and I can't say it's unexpected, but it still is shocking. Yeah. It's not something we can get used to. Andrew Weissman, thank you very much for joining us tonight. We'll be right back. How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi vehicle discount, safe driver discount, new vehicle discount, storage discount. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com autodiscounts restrictions apply. It's conversation, it's perspective. It's the weekend on MSNBC with three new dynamic hosts, Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Daniels and Jackie Alemani. And in the evening, it's the weekend prime time with awesome Raymond 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. In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been great the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility. I welcome it. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Today at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, former Vice President Mike Pence was awarded this year's John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. President Kennedy's daughter Caroline, who served as ambassador to Japan and served as ambassador to Australia, said this as President Kennedy challenged us 60 years ago. Now is the time for each of us to ask what we can do. Now is the time for us all to act because as we have seen in the past 100 days we can no longer take our democracy for granted. That's the lesson of Mike Pence's courageous actions on January 6th. Few of us who watched the violent invasion of our Capitol could believe what we were seeing, and even fewer understood the real danger and its true significance. I speak for myself and probably some others here when I say that at the time I thought Vice President Pence was just doing his job. Only later did I realize that his act of courage saved our government and warned us about what could happen and is happening right now. Vice President Pence, who took the oath of office six times as a member of the House of Representatives and once as Vice president, said this I will always believe by God's grace, I did my duty that day to support the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution of the United States of America. Our institutions held that day not because of any one person, but because leaders in both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, did their duty. I hope in some small way my presence here tonight is a reminder that whatever differences we may have as Americans, the Constitution is the common ground on which we stand. Vice President Mike Pence gets tonight's last word. Stay connected with the MSNBC app bringing you breaking news and analysis anytime, anywhere. All the stories that we're covering are live and happening as we speak. Watch your favorite shows live. What's happening right now is a hostile takeover of the US Government. Read live blogs in in depth essays and listen to coverage as it unfolds. Go beyond the what to understand the why. Download the app now@msnbc.com apparently.