April 18, 2019

Morning Joe discussed the latest lies from Ivanka Trump and security clearances for her and Jared.

"Why? Because he has the power to give it to them. At the end of the day, he refigures or reconfigures the process to his own liking and he knows there's nothing that can be done to stop him from doing that," Mika Scarborough said.

"Well, we've talked about checks and balances, we've talked about again, I've been thinking about the attorney general position for quite some time that there are some things, because there are people like myself that said, oh, the institutions will hold, the institutions are fine, the institutions have held thus far -- but that's because good men and women stood up at the right time, including Jeff Sessions when he recused himself," Joe Scarborough said.

"The attorney general, Mr. Barr, is now proving there are people that go in that are so craven for power that they actually will blow up constitutional norms. So whether you're looking at the attorney general possibly being selected like the FBI for ten years and i would say even by a super majority of the United States Senate, whether you're talking about a new way to look at these security clearances, there has to be a new way to look at the security clearances. We have to stop saying whatever the president says is declassified is declassified because after attacking Hillary Clinton throughout an entire campaign, for sending e-mails that might have been classified, he just blabs to the foreign minister of Russia, just blabs and every time he does something reckless and irresponsible that concerns the intelligence community, everybody goes, well, if the president says it's not classified, then it's not classified.

"Wrong. That's the wrong answer. The president should be indicted, Democratic or Republican presidents. You can't shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue add ride it out. You can't be in a position where if he's not re-elected, he might be sent to jail or indicted by the Southern District of New York, but if he is re-elected, he still can't be indicted. Wrong. And it's wrong for us to -- there are a system of checks and balances that need to to be in place. We had a 9/11 commission. We need a constitutional -- I don't want to say convention because that will suggest --

"I don't want to be the State of California. We need a constitutional review by brilliant Republican and Democratic conservative, liberal scholars that can look at it. I appoint George Conway to run the whole thing. No, I'm dead serious. He's a conservative jurist. They get together and figure out what doesn't work when you have somebody that is a would be tyrant in the white house," he said.

"You said in the beginning, you reminded us this has put the spotlight on the attorney's position. it's also reminded us that democracy is made up of customs and norms and if you have somebody who is ready to ride roughshod over the customs and norms, you can already do serious damage to the process and the workings of democracy so you have to codify some of it," Katty Kay said.

"There are some things we cannot depend on with the president of the United States. One is allowing an attorney general that he or she picks to determine whether his friends or allies are indicted, whether his friends or allies are let off the hook and whether an investigation that sends five, six, seven of his people are indicted or convicted to prison."

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