MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Unloads on Trump Arrest Rant — Says He’s Trying To Incite ‘Racially Tinged Violent Response’

MSNBC heavy hitter Rachel Maddow unloaded on ex-President Donald Trump’s call for fans to “PROTEST” his impending arrest, saying Trump is trying to incite a “racially tinged violent response.”

Trump touched off a firestorm Saturday morning with a pair of all-caps social media posts that culminated in a call to unrest.  In his posts Trump urged supporters to ‘TAKE OUR NATION BACK!’ in an early-morning all-caps rant over reports he claims say he ” WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.”

Trump appeared to be reacting to reports that various law enforcement agencies are meeting next week with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to prepare for a possible indictment and arrest of Trump in  Bragg’s case against Trump over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

But MSNBC went into crisis coverage mode following the post, calling out all the big guns including Maddow, who railed at length against Trump for what many see as a call to action that could turn violent:

RACHEL MADDOW: …I don’t think we’ve had a clear view of what his legal defense is going to be, but his overall defense is going to be to try to raise the civic cost of indicting him. He is trying to bring intimidation and pressure to bear against the prosecutors who are considering right now whether to indict him. And he’s hoping to create fear that there’ll be another January 6 type event or, you know, his followers are going to show up another FBI office or, you know, something else that he could he could cause to happen by asking his followers to go into the streets in his defense.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I’m glad you brought that up. And I love that phrasing, raise the the civic cost of indicting him. And I’m just wondering, the it’s hard not to recall January 6th when you read a post like the one he put out this morning. And I want you to talk further. How concerned are you and should people be concerned that that Trump supporters will see this as a call to action?

RACHEL MADDOW: Well, he’s trying to make it that.

…Getting arrested, getting indicted, even going to jail isn’t the end of the line. It isn’t the end of the world. But Trump is trying to make it that. He’s trying to make it so that there is a threat of uncontrollable political violence in this country that is triggered, that would be triggered by any, any act of the legal system against him. It’s his effort. There’s nothing intrinsic about him getting in trouble as a potentially publicly corrupt, public, corrupt figure that should cause violence. But he’s trying to make sure that it does. And the question is, whether his followers do.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: And, you know, to that point, you anticipated the next question I was going to ask you, given this long history of public officials up and down, up and down the roster being arrested and some of them viewing viewing it as a good thing, using the number of times they’ve been indicted as a punchline in in campaign speeches. Is this good for Trump politically because he is right now a declared candidate for president?

RACHEL MADDOW: Yes. I mean, I think that he’s banking on it being something that helps him. But he is playing with a fire that he doesn’t know how to contain and that nobody knows how to contain. Right. I mean, I think it is a little unnerving that his first political campaign appearance for his 2024 run is in Waco, Right. We’re at the 30th anniversary of the Waco standoff, Right. You’re talking about trying to trying to engender militant consciousness among Americans about the need to fight the federal government with violence. Well, Waco was a nice place to try to do that from. That’s a nice resonant place to try to do that from.

I mean, him being indicted on, you know, on a charge related to campaign finance tax and business fraud, again, doesn’t have to be the end of the world for him and could potentially be a positive for him. But if he’s asking for a militant racially, racially tinged violent response from his followers, that’s something that won’t be good for him. You know, January 6 is not good for Trump’s political legacy, for all the other things that it is, for all the other things that means for our country. It didn’t make him more electable for coming back as another term as president.

And so he’s he’s trying to start something that I don’t think he can, I don’t think he can take responsibility for how it will finish. And so I just I don’t I just don’t think it’s wise on his part. Just in political strategy, for him to be calling for what he’s calling for.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.