MSNBC commentators overjoyed by Trump indictment: 'What is supposed to happen'
MSNBC legal analysts and contributors argued the Trump indictment was an example of the justice system at work.
MSNBC analysts and commentators celebrated the bombshell news former President Trump had been indicted, arguing it was an example of the justice system at work.
The former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday after a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into hush money payments to Stormy Daniels leading up to his 2016 presidential campaign.
Republicans have blasted the charges by the Democratic prosecutor as a political witch hunt. However, MSNBC legal analyst Charles Coleman Jr. claimed it was a "very American story" of justice served.
"So everything that is taking place here is very American. And this is a new chapter in terms of what we have seen. But the elements that are involved, in terms of people who are having the courage and the fortitude to do what is right, even though they have been marginalized and come from marginalized places – this is a very American story in terms of turning people accountable to our justice system. This is what is supposed to happen," he stated.
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MSNBC Legal Analyst Charles Coleman praises justice system after Trump indictment (MSNBC/Screenshot)
"This is the day that so many have waited for," Coleman said. He claimed Trump was now being treated the "same way as everyone else" under the judicial system.
The legal analyst also praised District Attorney Alvin Bragg as a "trailblazer" who should be "commended."
"So I think he is to be commended for pressing forward in an environment that many people would have considered to be very, very political he has not let that phase him, he has not let that bother him," he stated. "[Bragg]is blazing a trail and setting a standard moving forward as to how prosecutors are supposed to treat citizen Trump," Coleman added.
Fellow guest and MSNBC political contributor Jason Johnson admitted to host Joy Reid that he was pleased by the news. He called the former president a "cancer" on America.
Former US President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. Trump formally entered the 2024 US presidential race, making official what he's been teasing for months just as many Republicans are preparing to move away from their longtime (standard bearer. Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"And I have to say this, Joy, it’s very clear not just as an academic, not just as a professor, not just as analyst, I am happy. I am legitimately happy. Because I think that the fact that Donald Trump had not been held accountable in any significant way thus far was a cancer on this country," he said.
Like the other commentators, Johnson hailed the charges as evidence of a fair and impartial judicial system.
"This guy is not invincible…that is a great moment in American history and all of us should be happy that the system is semi-working the way it should be," he praised.
Other guests emphasized the historic nature of the charges, with NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss declaring we would be "waking up in a different country" Friday morning.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg had been investigating former President Donald Trump for alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images/Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Another guest during Chris Hayes show the following hour celebrated the Trump charges as the "new normal."
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"You know, I think they realize that this is the new normal now. We have a swirl of reactions to this event as a kind of hard 'at last!' There is excitement perhaps or solemnity or whatever," Los Angeles Times legal columnist and U.S. attorney Harry Litman hailed.
Fox News' Lindsay Kornick and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.