Former Massachusetts governor and 2020 Republican challenger Bill Weld said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday that the only penalty for what he says President Trump is guilty of is death. And the MSNBC hosts were fine with that.
In a single segment, Weld visited the topic of the death penalty for Trump, and those two instances are joined in the clip above. First he brought it up himself without being prompted. The precipitating issue is the phone call to the President of Ukraine about investigating Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election, it couldn’t be clearer. And that’s not just undermining democratic institutions, that is treason. It’s treason, pure and simple. And the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death. That’s the only penalty,” said Weld. “The penalty under the Constitution is removal from office and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he can work out a plea deal.”
After being pressed a few moments later by MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan, Weld doubled down.
“You said that Donald Trump has committed treason and the penalty for treason under American law is death,” said Jordan. She then checked to find out whether he’d sorted out the details on putting the President to death and whether he saw this execution proceeding. “Do you — what’s the legal framework here? Have you looked into this? What — how do you see this proceeding?”
“Well, the legal framework is under the U.S. criminal code. The only penalty for treason is death. It spelled out in the statute. Under the Constitution, as you know, grounds for removal from office, impeachment, and removal from any federal office, are treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” said Weld. “We don’t have to worry about bribery anymore, although I think he’s committed that, we don’t have to worry about other high crimes and misdemeanors, although I think he committed many. He’s such a lawless man.”
“We’ve got treason. And we don’t have to dribble around the court. We can go right for the hoop,” he continued. “It’s well past time for this guy, in my opinion, to be carted off to save us all. He’s daring us all to let him be totally lawless.”
Weld added that “now the path is clear,” in case there remained any doubt about his meaning. “It’s a whole new level, and we have to count noses among the Republicans in the Senate.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
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