'The rule of law has been broken': Rachel Maddow on the GOP and democracy

Rachel Maddow gave an expansive breakdown of Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and the Republican Party’s attacks on U.S. laws and democracy during her Monday show. Beginning with Judge Juan Mercan’s warning that he would order jail time for Trump if he continued to violate the gag order. 

“Just a signal moment in American history today.” she said, “And it's sort of clear to me on this day, at this moment, than it's ever been in my lifetime, that the rule of law isn't just a bumper sticker, right? It isn't an abstract thing.” 

Maddow did an excellent job of nailing down the implications of this stress point in our history.

She then spoke about Georgia Republicans’ relentless attack against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan’s newest garbage investigation into the Department of Justice and New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and Trump’s escalating attacks on federal prosecutor Jack Smith. 

“Terrorizing judges and juries and witnesses and prosecutors is something that breaks the rule of law,” she said.  “If those people are intimidated and harassed and threatened, the rule of law has been broken.”

Maddow illustrated how the MAGA-motivated environment has led to a barrage of prosecutions of Americans who have tried to terrorize and intimidate people who are trying to apply the law to Trump. 

“This stuff has consequences, and this stuff is consequences,” she said.

Maddow expanded to the larger conservative movement’s undermining of our democracy, citing the RNC chief counsel’s resignation a few days ago, "reportedly because he was insufficiently enthusiastic about falsifying election results, about working to throw out real election results and get Trump into power despite them."

If someone is unwilling to accept U.S. elections as legitimate, the logic is clear: “What's the other mechanism we're going to use if it's not real election results?” Maddow said.“Democracy is mortal. It can be killed … it goes away when there stops being an expectation that we are governed by democratic means, when there stops being an expectation that elections are how we decide who's in power," Maddow added.

This isn’t hypothetical; it’s a fundamental position of the current GOP. 

“Once one of the two major governing parties no longer believes elections are binding, then in many important ways,” she said.“The democracy ship has sailed because they are no longer competing on democratic grounds.”

Maddow goes on to address how the Republican Party has aligned itself with the anti-Democratic interests of countries like China and Russia, whose resources are being used as a part of a propaganda campaign against democracy. 

"Like the leaders of those authoritarian countries. The American MAGA right also wants Americans to believe that their democracy is degenerate," she said.

Finally, Maddow finished by talking about how, knowing this, we know what to expect if and (likely) when Donald Trump once again violates his gag order. 

“Because we are on the precipice of that happening, and all the freak out that's going to attend it is something that we should expect,” she said. “We need to be ready. We are on the precipice of that next step in what has already been a very difficult time for us as a country.”