“He wants people like Emil Bove on the court in the future who will do his bidding no matter what.”
View the full interview HERE.
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss the latest controversial Trump nominee, Emil Bove, who is nominated for a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, including his blind loyalty to the president. Schiff also reacted to the recent news that President Trump released half of the National Guard soldiers he deployed to the demonstrations in Los Angeles.
Key Excerpts:
On Emil Bove’s nomination to the Court of Appeals:
[…] We have this confrontation now between Trump and the Federalist Society where Trump is dumping on Leonard Leo, who was one of the architects of the Federalist Society as essentially the pipeline for federal judges, because Trump is pissed that Amy Coney Barrett — who came out of that pipeline — isn’t willing to opine in every way Donald Trump wants. Even though, frankly, he got presidential immunity and a whole lot of other things from Barrett, as well as the other appointees. But because he’s pissed at Amy Coney Barrett and the Federalist Society, he wants MAGA people, not Federalist Society people. He wants people like Emil Bove on the court in the future who will do his bidding no matter what. So that’s what he’s looking for in Bove on the Court of Appeals, and potentially beyond that.
On Trump appointing loyalists to the DOJ to do his bidding:
[…] They push out these conspiracy theories, Kash Patel, Bongino, Bondi, all of them push out these conspiracy theories, and then when they don’t deliver — and even worse, when they withhold what they promised to release — of course, the MAGA base turns on them. And as you were pointing out, he doesn’t know how to deal with it. But yeah, I would think that Bove and all the rest of them are in the same, terrible position. Whether it matters or not, it clearly, at this point, doesn’t seem to matter to most of the Republicans on our committee who seem ready to do Trump’s bidding with this nomination.
On Trump releasing half of the National Guard soldiers he deployed to Los Angeles:
They should have been released. Frankly, they should never have been called up. This was a political show, a political parade from the very beginning by Donald Trump over the wishes of the governor and of the mayor to militarize an already tense situation in Los Angeles. It just made matters worse. But Trump feeds on that chaos, so this was by his design. And to see the Guard so misused in that way, the trust that Californians have for the Guard abused in that way, was just awful. And plus those Guard members that he took off their ordinary duties, it meant, at present, when we’re already dealing with fires breaking out in California, they were understaffed because we rely on our Guard in case of fire and other emergency. So, I think they had to cut them loose sooner or later. This was way too late, but I’m glad that this is finally happening, and I hope it means the release of all of those who were deployed, not just the Guard, but also the Marines, an even worse abuse.
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