“Morning Joe” blasted President Trump Friday for the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James for his weaponization of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough noted that Comey and James’ indictments fulfill the message to Bondi that Trump accidentally posted on his Truth Social account on Sept. 20. “[It was] a direct message to Pam Bondi that he inadvertently posted,” “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire reiterated. “He [wrote], ‘Hurry up. They’re guilty as Hell.’ He named three people [in that post]: James Comey, who has been indicted; Letitia James, who has been indicted. Senator Adam Schiff would stand to be next.”
“What’s so striking about this is this a direct order to the Attorney General of the United States, and she, by finding replacement prosecutors, found a way to do it,” Lemire continued. “This is the retribution he promised. It’s here.”
Journalist Bob Woodward, meanwhile, appeared in a guest capacity on Friday’s edition of “Morning Joe” and offered his perspective on Trump’s recent uses of his presidential powers. “I think the theme really is, ‘If you have power, use it — and also abuse it,’” Woodward offered. “It really is a breakthrough, a corrupt breakthrough, to have the President of the United States ordering up criminal charges against people who are opponents, and that’s exactly what’s happened.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.
Woodward, whose reporting on the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, spoke on how Trump’s actions as president compare to Nixon’s.
“It’s worse now, and, of course, after two years of Watergate, Nixon resigned,” Woodward noted. “We are now at a deadlock period, and it’s even worse than that. I mean, I think we have really reached the point where Trump has destabilized the government so it can’t function normally. And in this period of destabilization, everyone is going to, as I say, use the power they have.”
Woodward pointed specifically to not only Trump’s weaponization of Bondi, but also his stateside uses of the National Guard over the past nine months. “Trump has really become kind of the Cop-in-Chief,” Woodward remarked. “People like that, people who are authoritarian leaders, lean on the police force. Now, he’s using it specifically for occasions where he feels thwarted.”
