Donald Trump is lobbing a threat directly at the nine officials who did more than nearly anyone else to investigate and uncover his criminal culpability in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States capital and he's doing it in a way that would make any any mob boss proud in an interview with NBC's Kristen Walker Trump vowed to flip the justice system upside down he would pardon the perpetrators and he pushed to prosecute the investigators he called special counsel Jack Smith quote corrupt but claimed he'd leave any decision to investigate to his attorney general which
would be Pam Bondi if she's confirmed by the Senate the biggest target of Trump's wrath in this interview though was the members of the January 6 select committee themselves take a listen now listen this was a committee a big deal they lied and what did they do they did deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony do you know that I can't get I think those people committed a major crime and Cheney was behind it and so was Benny Thompson and everybody on that committee we're going to for what they did
yeah honestly they should go to jail so you think Liz Cheney should go to jail for what they did everyone on the committee you I think everybody on anybody that voted in favor are you going to direct your FBI director and your attorney general to send them to no not at all I think that they'll have to look at that but I'm not going to I'm going to focus on drill baby drill when you say that it cares weight though you you you know you've tapped these people to lead the justice department and FBI they
can do whatever they want they can do whatever they want even if what he wants what the boss wants is made crystal clear and interviews like that never mind that doesn't name any crimes that they allegedly committed this allegation that they quote deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half of he doesn't finish the sentence but we assume he means testimony is unfounded sort noting both his pick for FBI director and his nominee for attorney general are completely aligned with Donald Trump on this they have said repeatedly that they too would like to go
after critics of Donald Trump when Republicans take back the White House and we will because the Deep State last term for president Trump they were hiding in the shadows but now they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated we will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media yes we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rake presidential elections we're going to come after you whether it's criminally or civil we'll figure that out but yeah
we're putting you all on notice members of the January six committee now in team Trump's Crosshair show no signs of backing down from the work they did in investigating the January 6th attack on the US capital in a statement Liz Cheney says this quote president-elect Trump again lied about the January 6 select committee and said members of the committee quote should go to jail for carrying out our constitutional responsibilities here is the truth Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power he mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the US
capital where they attacked police officers in ated the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the capital was assaulted refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave this was the worst breach of our constitution by any president in our nation's history in a substack post titled bring it on Donald former GOP congressman Adam kininger writes this quote Donald Trump's latest threat to jail members of the January 6 committee is nothing more than the desperate howl of a man who knows history will
regard him with shame let me be clear we did nothing wrong the January 6 committee's work was driven by facts the Constitution and the pursuit of accountability principles that seem foreign to Trump Donald go ahead and try to rewrite history use your platform to deflect blame point fingers and play the victim but the evidence speaks louder than your words history will remember the January 6 committee as defend ERS of democracy and you as a man who betrayed it the truth has been laid bare the American people have seen the evidence and no kangaroo court or
Hollow threats will change that you may fool some of the people some of the time but the tide is turning it may it just may take a bit I'm confident that the name Trump will be a stain on our history and my son will be proud of what I did so bring it on we aren't afraid of the truth but I suspect you are joining our conversation former lead investigator for the January 6 select committee Tim hay and former Democratic senator MSNBC political analyst Claire mccal Andrew Weisman is still here Tim hay your thoughts yeah
it's much like the big lie Nicole of alleged election fraud right it doesn't become True by repeating it again and again uh in this country we have hopefully still a rule of law and facts matter and as Mr kinzinger and Miss Cheney have said there is just nothing whatsoever to substantiate any allegation of misconduct by the January 6 committee this narrative that stuff was destroyed or hidden is just unfounded every single interview in its entirety but for a handful of National Security interviews which were in the possession of the White House and still exist were
made public and are remain available there's just nothing there Nicole so while there may be investigations and questions asked the the underlying facts have to be present for there to be a legal consequence and they just don't exist here just like they have't ever existed with respect to the the big lie of election fraud um can I play um actually let me play what Adam kinzinger had to say on CNN about um I want to step back and say even Trump isn't alleging that any crimes were committed so I want to be careful in repeating
the Lang anguage of the Trump side about throwing people in jail in this country so far um you don't go to jail unless you're charged with the crime and then convicted of the crime by a jury of your peers so so I again I don't want to just repeat what they're saying over and over again but let me play Adam kinzinger on whether or not the committee members will will even be prosecuted are you worried that Donald Trump will try to put you in jail no I have absolutely no worries about this first off the
executive Branch can't go after the legislative branch because we embarrassed him that's not a sin that's not against the law uh ultimately when we talked about him throwing his ketchup and hamburger against the wall there's nothing illegal about that and most of the people that testified were actually his Republicans you know fellow Republicans that went up and spoke in him so look he's he's he's all but hurt right now because he was embarrassed uh he's not going to come after us and I'm not worried about it at all in the least to mayy um I
I feel like were already making the slide toward even adopting the conversations parameters about whether he can throw people in jail we again as of today um what is it December 9th um you can't simply throw people in jail so I I I wonder what your thoughts are about the rhetoric itself yeah I think the rhetoric is meant to be intimidating it is just like the big lie again where the facts and the underlying potential justification or consequence aren't really the point Nicole the point is intimidation or the point is is politicized rhetoric which is
in a sort of a muscle Flex without foundation and that is dangerous we you and I have talked on this program again and again about how rhetoric is taken seriously how things that might be meant as uh exaggeration or rhetoric are taken literally by individuals in this country we see again and again how that manifests sometimes very Dangerously In violence so it's completely irresponsible to make out allegations that there was misconduct or that there's criminal violations without being able to substantiate that with evidence there is no such evidence here and that makes this rhetoric particularly
irresponsible and and I guess what I'm getting at Tim is that we can't control what Trump is going to say in an interview but I do think it is a moment where we should be very cognizant of our own sliding and our own sliding here would be to come on the air and cover Trump saying he's going to throw people in jail we do not live in that country yet and um it is not um inevitable that we ever live in that country but I I do think when Trump talks about Prosecuting doj we using
doj to prosecute his enemies that in and of itself is an extraordinary departure from anything that's ever come before it exactly right the fact that we're even having this conversation where a a duly recognized Committee of the United States House of Representative Gathering facts and simply putting forth to the American people the facts that they have uncovered could be alleged to have been somehow nefariously criminal that the fact the threshold fact that we're having this conversation is shocking the other point I I feel like I keep making here is that when he he puts forth
resources or his attorney general or FBI director put forth resources to investigate things like this those are resources that are not being deployed to really serious criminal justice challenges right it's a finite pie Nicole where if if Federal prosecutors are investigating X that means they're not investigating why so all of this attention that may go to investigating these these these again completely baseless theories of obstruction of justice or or nefarious conduct that means that those same people in those same resources are not going to National Security to to to fentanyl trafficking to child exploitation to
fraud all of the very pressing things that the FBI and the justice department deal with every day I fear that there will not be enough resources to get to the bread and butter if they're diverted with these baseless investigations
