MS NOW legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said President Donald Trump’s disregard for court orders has turned the nation’s justice system into a laughingstock.

“The Trump administration is making the courts look like fools,” he said.

With the midterm elections quickly approaching, Weissmann warned it is time for America’s judges to work “faster and smarter” before it’s too late.

“The administration, over and over again, is doing things unilaterally without permission and, at times, in violation of court orders,” the former Justice Department official explained.

According to an analysis from The Associated Press earlier this year, district court judges have found the second Trump administration violated or failed to follow federal court orders in at least 31 lawsuits and in more than 250 individual immigration cases.

When the court does intervene, sometimes it’s already too late, Weissmann said, pointing to the administration’s use of taxpayer dollars to run ads for the president. When a federal judge blocked that effort, it was only after nearly $22 million had already been spent.

“Tens of millions of people saw those ads, paid for by you and me,” he said.

Weissmann argued that Trump’s DOJ has effectively taken a “do now and ask questions later” approach to the law.

“The court only belatedly says, ‘Hey, don’t do that.’ But the damage is already done, and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he said.

The former federal prosecutor said it was time for courts to be “faster and smarter” in responding to Trump’s blatantly illegal moves, and he cautioned against setting “a permission structure for this administration,” especially as the election approaches.

“What I am worried about is: The midterms are coming up, and is this going to be a government that goes ahead and seizes ballots with the idea that we can break the chain of custody, we can make it impossible to count votes? And maybe later a court will say, ‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ but the damage will have been done,” he explained.

“There has to be a deterrent,” Weissmann warned. “And courts have to be faster and smarter to not get outplayed.”

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You can watch Weissmann’s full comments in the clip above.

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MS NOW’s Michael Steele said the American people “turned the hand” of Donald Trump after the president announced the government would not livestream the execution of the Fort Hood shooter. “I think we need to sometimes put a check on ourselves, and in this instance, we did,” he said.

Last week, Pentagon officials said the execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people at a military medical building in 2009, would be livestreamed. But on Thursday, Trump reversed course in a Truth Social post, writing, “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”

Although the livestream has been called off, Steele said the fact that officials considered broadcasting the execution raises profound questions about the country’s leadership. “What does it say that our country would even consider doing something like this?” he asked.

“This level of barbarism, it doesn’t matter where you are on the death penalty and all of that; this is about who we are as a nation and whether or not we want to participate in this type of voyeurism, this type of dehumanizing behavior,” he continued.

As “The Weeknight” co-host pointed out, even some victims’ families expressed reservations about the plan. “It is painful for the families,” he said. “It is enough to have to live through the loss of their loved ones, but then to have this type of reality TV approach to something so serious, a matter so serious.”

Steele said the controversy underscored why those in power must be held accountable by the public. In this case, he said, Americans had to question whether the government’s plan reflected the country’s values. “I think we need to sometimes put a check on ourselves, and in this instance, we did,” he said, crediting public backlash for Trump’s reversal.

“I think the response of the American people is what turned the hand of the president on this,” he continued, adding that he was “grateful” the public chose to stand up for decency and sent Trump a clear message: “No, we’re not going to watch that.”

“We decided. You responded. That’s how this works,” Steele said.

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You can watch Steele’s full comments in the clip above.

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MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough criticized President Donald Trump for condemning Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil sites while saying little about Moscow’s continued violations of his energy ceasefire.

“These events are shocking — even by Trumpian standards,” Scarborough said.

In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, Trump called Ukraine’s decision to resume drone strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace” and said the attacks would drive up global oil prices. (Trump has repeatedly blamed the Russia-Ukraine war for surging energy costs, though experts say the U.S. war with Iran has had a greater impact.)

“I’m not a big fan of Zelensky,” Trump said of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that he found him “more difficult to deal with” than Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Reacting to Trump’s comments, Scarborough said Friday on “Morning Joe” that he “just can’t get Ukraine off my mind and the absolute betrayal of Ukraine.”

The MS NOW host cast Trump’s criticism of Ukraine as the latest in a series of moves that he argued favor Moscow. Last week, Trump announced the United States would lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports. Scarborough said the agreement would help “pump billions of dollars into Vladimir Putin’s killing machines.”

He also cited Reuters’ report that an order to limit Ukraine’s access to SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service came from inside the White House. The temporary restriction disrupted Ukrainian drone operations, according to the report. A White House official denied that Trump ordered the Pentagon to limit the service.

“That’s all in Donald Trump’s hands,” Scarborough continued. “He’s the one in charge of this.” He said he believed Trump was “doing everything he can to help” Putin “win this war.”

According to the “Morning Joe” co-host, Trump has “been telling us who he is since 2015” when it comes to his feelings toward Putin.

“He’s always been with Russia,” he said. “Long before this war in 2015, while he was running for president, he was talking about his great admiration for Vladimir Putin.”

Scarborough also recalled what he called Trump’s “shameful, pathetic, weak performance” at his 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, during which Trump publicly cast doubt on U.S. intelligence agency findings on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Since Trump returned to the White House, Scarborough said, “we’ve heard more of the same.” He said Trump’s advisers would share responsibility for the consequences of the administration’s approach to Ukraine.

“Everybody around him that has anything to do with this policy, this betrayal of the West, this betrayal of Western freedom, this betrayal of Ukraine, this will be marked upon their legacies for as long as they live,” he said.

You can watch Scarborough’s full comments in the clip at the top of the page.

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