During a discussion on MSNBC with host Jen Psaki, who served as press secretary in the earlier parts of the Biden administration, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann argued that former President Donald Trump just undercut his own basic legal defense with an interview for “Meet the Press” this past Sunday.
Trump, during that interview with new host Kristen Welker, brought back up yet again his baseless claims of widespread problems in the handling of the 2020 presidential election, a concept that’s never, ever been actually proven.
“If you’ll remember, everyone thought there’d be a red mirage, that the night of the election, Trump would be ahead, because the mail-in votes had not been counted, and sure enough, Trump had said, ‘Stop counting.’ Well, that’s a crime,” Weissmann told Psaki on MSNBC. “He was saying at the time — and he just said it on air to NBC — stop counting the votes. Well, that’s not allowed. That is part of the scheme here.” Trump had argued in a clip of the NBC interview that was played on the broadcast with Psaki that the election had effectively been over early the night it happened.
Weissmann also noted how Trump appeared to take personal ownership for key efforts targeting the election outcome, potentially throwing out the possibility of claims in court that he simply followed others’ advice in what transpired. It could happen, Weissmann said, that portions of Trump’s remarks to Welker end up figuring in the criminal proceedings Trump currently faces from Special Counsel Jack Smith for his admitted attempts to alter what was in reality the duly documented outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Smith is currently seeking limited restrictions on what Trump can say publicly in connection to that case, focusing on the possibility of threatening rhetoric from the former president — or commentary revealing key personal details about individuals connected to the case.
