Morning Joe Reacts to Lawyer’s Claim Stormy Daniels Was Physically Threatened: Could ‘Bring Down The Presidency’
Morning Joe’s interview with Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti contained something of a bombshell: at the end of the appearance, Avenatti revealed that his client was threatened physical harm.
Daniels alleges that she was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair with Donald Trump. She is suing the now-president to get out of the nondisclosure agreement she claims is invalid because Trump never signed it.
After her lawyer’s interview on MSNBC, the panel was stunned by his revelation that Stormy was threatened with physical harm, and spent the next segment analyzing what that means for the Trump presidency.
MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch suggested that if it turns out Daniels (real name Stephanie Cliffords) was physically threatened “by either the president or somebody” close to him, “that in and of itself could bring down this presidency.”
Morning Joe co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough pushed back on the idea, with Scarborough claiming “it’s hard to say.”
“What happened here 15 minutes ago is nothing short of stunning,” Deutsch added.
Willie Geist noted that a lot of the salacious claims made against Trump don’t have an effect because they are “baked in,” but that proof of a physical threat “has to change the calculus a bit.”
MSNBC’s John Heilemann pointed out that if the lawyer’s claims are true, and someone tried to threaten Daniels with physical harm weeks before the 2016 election, “that is a gargantuan story.”
“If it is one of his inner circle, if it’s a henchman, someone like that,” Deutsch said, “this will bring down this presidency.”
“This is physical harm to a woman,” he added. “This is not sex, this is not groping.”
U.S. attorney Joyce White Vance concluded by pointing that “the context, on the eve of the election, wraps this up inextricably with political events in this country.”
“This could easily be his downfall,” she said.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
[image via screengrab]
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