‘Where Do We Begin?’ MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski Stunned Trump Believes a Photoshopped Image Is Evidence to Jail Someone
MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski asked her panel on Wednesday morning to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s adamant claim that “MS-13” is actually tattooed on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s knuckles, a false claim that has been cited as a justification for Abrego Garcia’s indefinite imprisonment in El Salvador.
“The president also got into a heated exchange about whether Abrego Garcia is a gang member, claiming Abrego Garcia has the tattoos to prove it,” Brzezinski began, playing a clip from Trump’s ABC News interview with Terry Moran from the night before:
TRUMP: Even the man that you picked out, he said he wasn’t a member of a gang, and then they looked and on his knuckles he had MS-13.
MORAN: There’s a dispute over that.
TRUMP: Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute! He had MS-13 on his knuckles tattoo.
MORAN: He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way, but let’s move on.
TRUMP: Wait a minute. Hey, Terry, Terry.
MORAN: He did not have the letter MS-13.
TRUMP: It says MS-13
MORAN: That was photoshopped. So let me just.
TRUMP: That was photoshopped, Terry you can’t do that. Hey, they’re giving you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doing the interview. I picked you because frankly I never heard of you, but that’s okay. But I picked you, Terry, but you’re not being very nice.
Brzezinski then noted, “Last week, President Trump posted this photo on Truth Social, claiming this is the knuckle of Abrego Garcia. But the words MS-13 are photoshopped onto the image. The actual tattoos are of various symbols. Where do we begin with this?”
“I mean, on a number of levels. And, Danny, we have questions for you about this specific case. But, you know, Willie. There’s he’s He has been moved to– Abrego Garcia has been moved to another prison. He’s been sent to a prison in El Salvador. He was moved from the notorious prison to another one, and there are still several hundred other people who didn’t get due process who are in the most miserable place on Earth, as it’s described, and the president is just letting them all hang there.
Willie Geist replied, “And no less than the Supreme Court, as Terry Moran pointed out, has ordered the president to facilitate the return of Abrego García. That’s as high up as you can go, and yet he says, ‘I’m following the law. The lawyers have said I can do this.’”
“I believe I’ve heard that the president doesn’t like the idea that’s out there that he’s too weak to bring back. Remember, they’ve said, well, we can’t. Now that he is in El Salvador, the Justice Department said, there’s nothing we can do. Well, of course, he could. He’s Donald Trump. He’s the President of the United States. He could call because obviously he has the President of El Salvador under his thumb and say, send him back. It’s just that he doesn’t want to get him back,” Geist concluded.
“I think politically, there would be value in bringing him back. But, Danny, let’s get to the legality of all this. First of all, Abrego Garcia is the president, following the law?” Brzezinski asked.
Legal analyst Danny Cevalos replied, “Probably not, and I’ve been in that camp, of not ready to declare a constitutional crisis yet. I have been a staunch, I’ve been committed to the idea that I’m not ready to say that until and unless the president says, I have an order and I am openly defying it.”
“And after this interview, there’s not a lot of wiggle room left for the president because he said he conceded in a very smart question and answer designed to get that exact answer, ‘I could pick up the phone and return him right now.’ The Supreme Court has ordered, more specifically, the Maryland district court has ordered that the president or the administration facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return,” Cevalos continued, adding:
But I want to be clear, it’s not his return forever and ever, happily ever after. Understood. We need to be realistic about this. If the administration wants to remove Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in the end, the odds are it will be able to. The only thing the Supreme Court and the district court have ordered is that he be returned as if he was not removed in this improper way.
So what the administration could do is just bring him back, give him what we call due process. And, you know, people have been talking a lot about due process, like it’s a magic talisman. The reality is, and as a criminal defense attorney, I think a lot of criminal defense attorneys would agree that due process is a nice thing, but a lot times it doesn’t change the inevitable outcome of a case.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
