it has been good to be, with you guys, that will do it for now. it is time for the last word with the great lawrence o donnell. good evening, lawrence. good evening, rachel, we will be considering president silence key speech tonight and what we re learning in the new revelations in those transcripts about just how friendly to the fifth amendment all those trump witnesses are. fifth, fifth, fifth! it s actually has a nice be to it when you repeat it at just the right cadence. my favorite fifth amendment question was, are you a graduate of duke university? the person asked that question took the fifth amendment and you know i kind of understand that one. i kind of do. i like when liz cheney asked mike flynn, are you aware that we are a nation of laws? and he said, fifth. if that incriminate you, my dude. yes.
dangerous behavior in the article ii branch. should they come out for the president and say they want a fair process, they want to see witnesses, they want to see something that mitch mcconnell, lindsey graham and senator blunt are all pretty much saying is not going to happen? what i see among the republicans are poll-tested courage, that is, if their states are telling them that they need to have a drawn-out trial, then they ll get on board. i don t know who is going to have that position. but remember, damon, before christmas the original argument against the democrats were process arguments, and one of them was that they rushed this and the president had no witnesses when the fact is virtually every witness they had in the impeachment inquiry were all trump appointees, employees of trump appointees or government officials, people who work in the administration. in fact, they were all trump witnesses and trump didn t like what they said. so what s the answer now? the answer then w
you don t go through the first part in the house and then just tee this up for a senate process where the guy that is going to be in charge of orchestrating the entire senate trial has said that the whole thing is already baked and cooked and there is nothing that anybody could do about it. you don t do that. that makes a mockery of the entire system and i would hope that mr. mcconnell would understand the weigh of the responsibility that is coming down on his shoulders an the shoulders of the united states senate. you saw patrick leahy pen an op-ed said what is on trial not just the president but it is, in fact, the united states senate and the legitimacy of the senate and i would hope the majority leader would recognize that as well. and they are pushing to call trump witnesses as witnesses and one thing that pelosi wants and any agreement in the senate controlled by republicans would mean they get to call witnesses too. here is former vice president joe biden yesterday clearing up