On MSNBC’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid hosted the network’s pseudo-historian Michael Beschloss to concoct yet another one of his conspiracy theories about how former President Donald Trump is a wannabe fascist dictator and will start jailing people if he gets elected again in 2024. According to Beschloss, Trump isn’t keeping his fascist dictator desires a secret until after the election because he wants to intimidate the judge overseeing his trial in the classified documents case, as well as scare everyday Americans into submission for political gain.
“Why did Donald Trump choose this moment to tell the American people that he will become a dictator if elected?” Beschloss asked rhetorically. His answer was just as loony as you can imagine:
The major reason is, if Americans think that Donald Trump is inevitable and that fascism is the wave of the American future, people will begin in their minds to censor themselves and they will make adjustments and everything they do between now and 16 months from now at the time of the election, they might say, well, maybe I shouldn’t say this because if Trump is re-elected, he may start jailing people, he may retaliate against people.
His second reason was because Trump wants to intimidate jurors and the judge who he has to stand on trial before.
Beschloss used his child-like imagination to ponder the following: “If Donald Trump right now wants to intimidate jurors, in Fort Pierce, Florida, in Georgia, in Washington, D.C., in other trials, you know, what better way than to give them the idea that if they cast a vote that sends Donald Trump to prison or causes him to be convicted, then if Donald Trump becomes President, who’s going to be first on the enemy’s list?”
If Trump had dictatorial tendencies, then he would’ve acted on them during his first term as President. Why would he wait for a second term if he’s successful?
This is your brain on MSNBC. Or as conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin would say: MSLSD.
This segment was made possible by Liberty Mutual. Their information is linked.
To read the transcript, click “expand”:
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
7/17/2023
7:14:18 p.m. EasternJOY REID: You know, as Lawrence O’Donnell said, Michael Beschloss, Donald Trump holds the ultimate incentive for her. Meaning he becomes President, Clarence Thomas retires to permanently vacation with his billionaire friends, who by the way probably won’t want to take him anywhere anymore because he can’t get them anything anymore, and she gets on the Supreme Court in her late 30s. And then—there’s no incentive for her to behave herself. If she’s MAGA, she can MAGA and there’s nothing we can do about it.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Well, and the other thing is we have to ask the question, just as Josh was saying, why did Donald Trump choose this moment to tell the American people that he will become a dictator if elected? You might think it might be more politically shrewd to pretend to be a moderate and then do all this if he is elected. And I would give two reasons. The major reason is, if Americans think that Donald Trump is inevitable and that fascism is the wave of the American future, people will begin in their minds to censor themselves and they will make adjustments and everything they do between now and 16 months from now at the time of the election, they might say, well, maybe I shouldn’t say this because if Trump is re-elected, he may start jailing people, he may retaliate against people.
And very specifically, if Donald Trump right now wants to intimidate jurors, in Fort Pierce, Florida, in Georgia, in Washington, D.C., in other trials, you know, what better way than to give them the idea that if they cast a vote that sends Donald Trump to prison or causes him to be convicted, then if Donald Trump becomes President, who’s going to be first on the enemy’s list? Remember what President Obama said, when we lose true democracy, people get hurt. That’s what’s going to happen if this happens.