MS NOW host Rachel Maddow expressed her incredulity at the Trump presidency while reacting to former special counsel Jack Smith’s testimony at a “historic hearing” before Congress on Thursday.
RACHEL MADDOW, MS NOW HOST: The reason we are all here tonight together is for a special primetime recap of the historic hearing that took place in Washington today with Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought 44 felony charges against the man who is now the sitting president of the United States. As special counsel, Jack Smith operated independently within the U.S. Department of Justice.
He and his team of prosecutors and FBI agents investigated Donald Trump.They investigated his efforts to overthrow the U.S. government to try to get the results of the election he lost thrown out so he could stay in power anyway.
They then investigated his handling of classified information after he left office. But, of course, in the American mind, the culmination of Donald Trump’s efforts that were investigated by Jack Smith were these images, the violent attack by Trump supporters on the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
Under Jack Smith’s leadership, a grand jury brought four felony charges against Trump in the case to overthrow the U.S. government and stay in power after he lost reelection.
A second federal grand jury brought an additional 40 felony charges against him in the classified documents case for taking huge amounts of highly classified material with him after he left office, an alleged violation of, among other things, the Espionage Act.
I mean, just spelling this all out, saying these words right now, it never stops being astonishing that the person facing those kinds of felony charges was nevertheless elevated by the Republican Party to become their nominee for president of the United States, Espionage Act and all.
But he was their nominee and he won the general election and the federal felony criminal charges that Jack Smith and his team brought against Donald Trump were never heard in court.
And today, for the first time, Jack Smith testified in an open hearing in Congress about his work, about the evidence his team developed against the man who is now the sitting president.
As Smith remarked several times today, there is no analog for this in U.S. history. Nothing like this has ever happened before. And this historic hearing today didn’t disappoint.