MSNBC host Eugene Daniels expressed outrage on Sunday after President Donald Trump’s Daily Caller interview, in which he said that it “would not bother” him to see former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan arrested live on television.
Trump told Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese on Friday that he believed his administration’s investigation into Russiagate should result in arrests. Daniels argued on “The Weekend” that Trump’s comment fell into a pattern of his “authoritarian ambitions.”
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“That attitude — punishing perceived enemies while rewarding devotees — is exactly what we’re seeing across the federal government,” Daniels said. “At the Centers for Disease Control, Trump has already installed a new hand-picked loyalist, a business investor with no medical training, to replace a career scientist to run your nation’s top public health agency.”
“Then there’s the Federal Reserve, where emergency hearings are underway right now after Trump’s attempt to oust Fed Board Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud, even though she has not been charged with any crime,” he continued. “But the aim is clear: get her out so he can put in a loyalist.”
Cook allegedly declared multiple properties as her primary residence within weeks of each other.
“And that’s become Trump’s playbook across the government, forcing out officials at the CIA, the Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics — institutions where nonpartisanship is essential to what they do,” Daniels added. “It’s their lifeblood.”
“Trump is also ramping up his war on blue cities, manufacturing crisis after crisis as a means to seize more power,” he said. “In addition to National Guard deployments, Trump is threatening new immigration crackdowns in Boston and Chicago, using agents from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and Border Patrol — agencies whose budget Trump tripled this year.”
The president announced on Aug. 11 that his administration was declaring a “public safety emergency,” deploying the National Guard and federally taking over the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said during a Wednesday press conference that she was grateful for “the surge of officers” during Trump’s crime crackdown.
“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city … for carjackings, the difference between this period, this 20-day period of this federal surge, and last year represents a 87% reduction in carjackings in Washington, D.C.,” Bowser said.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard published documents in July which she said showed “overwhelming evidence” that former President Barack Obama and his national security team “manufactured and politicized intelligence” after Trump’s 2016 victory. She also referred the case to the Department of Justice.
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