MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner says President Trump committed second-degree murder with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“What Donald Trump has just done by virtue of the tapes that Bob Woodward released, is he has upped his own criminal ante to second-degree murder,” Kirschner said Thursday on SiriusXM’s “The Dean Obeidallah Show.”
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Mediaite published audio of the interview, in which Kirschner detailed his explanation. The MSNBC analyst feels audio excerpts from interviews famed reporter Bob Woodward conducted with Trump in February and March that were published by The Washington Post Wednesday prove guilt.
MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner feels President Trump committed second-degree murder with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. (MSNBC)
The interviews are the basis for Woodward's forthcoming book, "Rage." Trump was heard telling Woodward about the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic but explained he wanted to downplay it to avoid widespread panic.
While Trump has maintained he did not lie to the American people, Kirschner disagrees.
“He was lying to the American people about the danger this virus posed,” Kirschner continued. “He was saying to Bob Woodward, in very dramatic tones, you know, ‘This thing is airborne only you need to do is breathe near somebody who is infected and you are going to get it,’ he didn’t tell the American people that. But what did he do? He refused to order the production of the personal protective equipment.”
Kirschner then reiterated the second-degree murder claim.
“This man has upped the criminal ante to second-degree murder, and there are only two elements for second-degree murder. The first is you caused the death of another. The second element is the intent element,” Kirschner said. “And here’s where it would otherwise get tricky if we didn’t have Trump’s incriminating admissions.”
Kirschner explained that Trump didn’t intend to kill people but that doesn’t matter because he feels the president committed “conscious disregard, which fits the criteria of second-degree murder."
“That’s defined as, your conduct was in conscious disregard of the extreme risk you were creating to other human beings that they would suffer death or serious bodily injury,” he said. “Trump has admitted, in my opinion as a career prosecutor and, frankly, I was the most experienced homicide prosecutor in the Department of Justice because of our unique jurisdictional mandate in D.C., that is second-degree murder and Donald Trump must be held accountable.”
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Facing repeated questions by reporters during a press briefing at the White House on Thursday, Trump pushed back on claims that he lied to the American public during the early days of the pandemic in the country.
“I want to show a level of confidence and I want to show strength as a leader,” Trump said. “There was no lie here, what we’re doing here is leading and we’re leading in the proper way.
“I don’t want to jump up and down and shout ‘death, death’” he added. “I have to lead a country.”
Fox News’ Charles Creitz and Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.