MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has been spending a few minutes of the 10:00 p.m. Eastern hour on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on the heels of rumors O’Donnell could be axed, so it was not surprising that Wednesday’s conversation turned up a possible Notable Quotable.
Referring to a fresh New York Times story about Mike Flynn, Maddow suggested The Times report that the Trump White House hired Flynn as National Security Adviser despite knowing Flynn was under federal investigation would mark the biggest scandal in presidential history.
Maddow explained:
Can you imagine in any other presidential administration the news breaking that the White House counsel was notified weeks in advance that a national security adviser candidate was under federal investigation and the White House then went ahead and made the hire that would be a bigger scandal than almost anything we've ever seen in any presidential administration. I mean, tonight it's the third biggest story of the night.
O’Donnell agreed and allowed Maddow to add that Flynn’s hiring despite warnings “would be bigger than almost any other presidential scandal in history on its own terms if this story bears out.”
Here’s the lede of The Times story the pair were referencing (as of this post’s publication):
Michael T. Flynn told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign, according to two people familiar with the case.
Despite this warning, which came about a month after the Justice Department notified Mr. Flynn of the inquiry, Mr. Trump made Mr. Flynn his national security adviser. The job gave Mr. Flynn access to the president and nearly every secret held by American intelligence agencies.
Going forward, O’Donnell seemingly hinted at the likelihood of criminal charges across the Trump administration as he hinted that the man in Trump White House counselor Don McGahn’s job was John Dean in the Nixon White House:
We should keep our eye on Don McGahn. White House counsel was John Dean’s job in the Nixon White House. John Dean ended up serving time some of the actions he took as White House counsel. But he was the guy who turned on everyone else in the conspiracy and did testify against them, 48 people. 48 people in Nixon's administration then go to jail after that.
Just for an extra dose of melodramatic behavior from the close-to-being-cancelled host, he told Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) that April 17 and Robert Mueller’s appointment as Special Counsel of the Trump-Russian investigation marked “a really historic night” even though the country is in a “very dark” place.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on May 17:
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
May 17, 2017
10:03 p.m. Eastern
RACHEL MADDOW: Yeah, I mean, can you imagine in any other presidential administration the news breaking that the White House counsel was notified weeks in advance that a national security adviser candidate was under federal investigation and the White House then went ahead and made the hire that would be a bigger scandal than almost anything we've ever seen in any presidential administration. I mean, tonight it's the third biggest story of the night.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Yeah.
MADDOW: But that would be bigger than almost any other presidential scandal in history on its own terms if this story bears out.
O’DONNELL: We should keep our eye on Don McGahn. White House counsel was John Dean’s job in the Nixon White House. John Dean ended up serving time some of the actions he took as White House counsel. But he was the guy who turned on everyone else in the conspiracy and did testify against them, 48 people. 48 people in Nixon's administration then go to jail after that.
MADDOW: Wow.
O’DONNELL: Here we are, Rachel. Here we are.
MADDOW: Here we are, and here we remain. Thank you, Lawrence.
(....)
10:10 p.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL [TO KLOBUCHAR]: Senator Klobuchar, thank you very much for joining us on what is really a historic night and I have said that on many nights of the trump presidency. But this is a place where this country has before in times that have felt very dark and so it is a very important discussion we're now embarking on. A new chapter of it with the special counsel.
