Failed Gaetz nomination reveals limits on Trump’s power

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Washington, Policy, Politics, President, News, Versant Media, Ms Now, Congress, Versant, Senate, Government

4.5 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks are facing multiple controversies. Also, Trump defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth questions the established “rules of war.” Plus, Trump’s win throws the U.S. support of Ukraine into question. And Democrats retain a one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania House. Rep. Gregory Meeks, Janai Nelson, Mikhail Zygar, Amb. Michael McFaul, and Pennsylvania State Rep. Joanna McClinton join Jonathan Capehart.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now it's time for the last word with Jonathan K. Parton, who's in for Lawrence. Good evening, my friend.
0:05.0	Good evening, Alex, fly, be free. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you, my friend. Have a great show.
0:11.3	Thanks, Alex. Thank you. Mandate. Donald Trump and his allies have been screaming that word to anyone who'll listen since election night.
0:20.4	As the final votes are still being counted,
0:23.0	Donald Trump's share of the popular vote has slipped below 50 percent, meaning once again,
0:29.2	more voters voted against Trump than for him. According to the New York Times, that's one of the
0:35.6	smallest margins of victory in the popular vote since the 19th century and generated little of the coattails of a true landslide.
0:44.4	And of course, in 2016, Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes.
0:50.2	Today, Trump's transition team tried to tout the MAGA mandate once again by comparing his win to the 1992 election when Bill Clinton carried just 43% of the popular vote and Time magazine ran the headline, Mandate for Change.
1:08.4	First, in 1992, the incumbent president, George H.W. Bush, the status quo,
1:15.4	got 37 percent of the vote. That's why the result was a mandate for change. But even with an
1:22.1	electoral college victory much larger than Trump's, that mandate wasn't much of a mandate.
1:28.1	The New York Times reports, Bill Clinton tried to turn his 5.6 point win in 1992 into a
1:36.0	mandate to completely overhaul the nation's health care system, a project that blew up in his
1:41.5	face and cost his party both houses of Congress in the next
1:45.6	midterm elections. Now, Donald Trump isn't even in office and things are already blowing up in his
1:53.1	face with headline after a headline about the failed nomination for Matt Gates as attorney
1:59.0	general and the limits of Donald Trump's power since it
2:02.9	was Republican senators who tanked Gates' nomination.
2:07.1	Tonight, Donald Trump announced two major administration picks.
2:11.7	For a Treasury Secretary, Trump picked Scott Besson, a billionaire hedge fund executive.
2:17.9	The Washington Post reports that Besson, who once served as a chief lieutenant for GOP
	...

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