Joe Scarborough: Trump Threatening FBI Investigation Into Liz Cheney Will Only Make Her ‘More Powerful’
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough lambasted President-elect Donald Trump’s support for an FBI investigation into former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney as a move that will make her into a political “martyr.”
The House GOP subcommittee, chaired by Congressman Barry Loudermilk, released its second report Tuesday urging the Justice Department to investigate Cheney’s handling of last year’s Capitol riot probe. The report accused Cheney of improper coordination with key witness Cassidy Hutchinson, claiming she engaged in witness tampering by “colluding” on testimony.
In an early morning post on Truth Social, Trump praised the committee’s report, calling it “a job well done” and fanning speculation about a potential investigation. He said that Cheney “could be in a lot of trouble.”
Reacting to the move on Wednesday morning’s show, Scarborough said that this was the kind of MAGA “retribution” that pundits had been warning about but warned Trump that pursuing action against Cheney would only make her “more powerful.”
You have these subcommittees coming out, talking about arresting political opponents. Like, recommending investigations into that. I mean, the margins are so bare in the house. And in the senate. These people are acting like they won by 20 – 25 percent and I will say even inside the people close to Donald Trump, they have been saying for weeks now: ‘No retribution. He’s not going to do retribution. We don’t have time for retribution.’
This sort of talk early on, it’s bad for everybody. It’s bad for the House Republicans and it’s bad for Donald Trump. It’s bad for, you know, the markets.
I mean, this is what we’ve been talking about: retribution blew back on Democrats through the years. Donald Trump will probably be the first to say that he got elected in part because sitting at a criminal defendant’s table this summer made him a martyr. You put Liz Cheney there, or you even talk about it, and you put out these stupid reports that this House subcommittee has put out, you are making her a martyr. You are making her bigger. You are making her more powerful. You are making her everything that these people would not want to make her but they’re doing it. They’re playing right into her hands.
Watch above on MSNBC.
