Tuesday on MS NOW’s “The Last Word,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the Department of Justice’s seeking and failing to bring indictments against multiple Democratic lawmakers over a video on military orders was a milestone on the “road to dictatorship.”
Host Lawrence O’Donnell said, “This is one of those moments that we have never before seen in the history of this country, Donald Trump getting his so-called Justice Department to try to prosecute members of Congress for publicly reciting the law. Not once in the history of this country has that ever happened.”
Schiff said, “Lawrence, this is a stunning development. It is really hard to overstate the significance of this. The assault, the frontal assault on the rule of law. The Justice Department under Pam Bondi, no doubt acting under the instructions of the president, nine states sought to indict six members of Congress for exercising their First Amendment rights for serving their their constituents, for upholding their responsibility as representatives. They sought to indict six members of Congress. It is just such a shock to see the rule of law so betrayed, so utterly betrayed. If we look at this period in the future and the milestones on the road to dictatorship, this is a big one to consider. How this Justice Department has been misused, how it’s been weaponized in such a blatant fashion, and the fact that the grand jury rejected it, of course, is very significant because that’s so unusual. But it shouldn’t dissuade us or fail to have us appreciate the lawlessness of what they tried to do. The fact it was unsuccessful, yes, should be applauded. The fact they tried, though, is a five alarm fire.”
He added, “We all need to show that courage that the grand jury showed and that others have demonstrated in standing up to this president who wants to be a dictator.”
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