If you’re reading this, then you know that former President Donald Trump was indicted yet again on Thursday afternoon. Naturally, the MSNBC shows were all-in on that topic throughout the network’s Thursday night lineup.
Including (sorry) “All-In With Chris Hayes,” where Hayes hosted a round table discussion of the news that featured fellow MSNBC host and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. She noted during the discussion that Trump is already using this news to raise money from supporters, a fact she noted in contrast to how Joe Biden is likely to discuss the matter.
So in case you need a catch up, Trump’s latest indictment involves still-undisclosed federal charges stemming from the special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents. The news became public Thursday when Trump himself announced it, and the indictment has since been confirmed by several major media outlets, including NBC.
The government, however, has yet to issue an official statement on the matter, so we’ll have to wait to find out precisely what Trump is being charged with. That could happen on Tuesday when Trump surrenders himself in a federal court, though if recent history is a guide, it’s likely the details will be leaked at some point earlier. Read more about the whole thing here.
Meanwhile back on MSNBC, Hayes asked Psaki, “I wonder how you think about the Biden administration handles this, how Democrats handle this, how Republicans in Congress handle this.”
“This isn’t Alvin Bragg in Manhattan, who is not part of the Biden administration,” Hayes continued, referring to the District Attorney overseeing Trump’s criminal fraud case in New York City. “You can heap scorn on him and you can say nasty things about him, with all sorts of, you know, pretty gross, racist undertones. [But] this is the Justice Department of the United States, that Joe Biden is the president of at the moment.”
“Exactly,” Psaki replied, “I mean look, I think Trump is clearly — he already is fundraising off of this, or attempting to, and he is clearly going to try to gather the base around him as he did around the indictment by Alvin Bragg.”
“This case is different, for a range of reasons. One of them, just on the pure messaging standpoint, a case where people are trying to communicate publicly and try and critique about how a former president may have paid hush money to an adult film star, is a bit more complicated than this,” Psaki continued.
“Which is somebody obstructing justice, somebody withholding classified documents, potentially sharing them in a way that could harm our national security, that is different. And we should acknowledge that, in terms of how it will be communicated,” Psaki said.
“In terms of the White House, the way that I expect they will handle it,” she said, “is, Joe Biden is an institutionalist, he believes in the separation of the branches of government, and I suspect that they will be very limited in anything they say about this at all. Especially in the short term.”
“Now, over the long term, if there are additional indictments… there are ways to, once you get past the pure politicization period of time, or the accusation of that, to talk about kind of the value for our national security, for rule of law, for democracy. And there is a way for Joe Biden to do that on the campaign trail and in speeches. But for now, I expect they will be very quiet, same with Democrats,” Psaki clarified.
You can watch the full clip here.
