Chris Hayes says Trump gets away with ‘mafia-style gangster threats’ because Republicans ‘just help him’

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes discussed the scandal surrounding Donald Trump’s violation of federal law at Arlington National Cemetery this week and gave a bleak picture of the state of the Republican Party.

“Trump has gotten away with intimidation and mafia-style, gangster threats because ordinary Republicans let him help him, or in many cases helped him,” Hayes said.

In question, this week Trump filmed a campaign video at Arlington National Cemetery, a violation of federal law that prohibits the use of the memorial for political purposes. When an employee tried to enforce the rule, one of Trump’s aides physically assaulted her. The employee filed a report with the Army (which oversees the memorial), but ultimately chose not to press charges because she feared reprisals from Trump’s supporters.

The military has confirmed all of these events, saying in a statement, in part: “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC worker and her professionalism were unjustly targeted. ANC is a national shrine for the honoured dead of the armed forces, and its dedicated personnel will continue to ensure that public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect that the nation’s fallen deserve.”

Hayes detailed all of this and then went on to describe how Trump and several associates, including his vice presidential running mate J.D. Vance, blatantly lied about the incident. Not only did they falsely accuse the woman they attacked, they also denied filming a campaign video, despite posting the video to Trump’s TikTok account.

“Sound familiar?” Hayes asked of all this. “Does it sound a little like the story of Alexander Vindman, the soldier and National Security Council aide who blew the whistle on Trump’s efforts to blackmail Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden? Maybe it reminds you of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Georgia election officials whose lives were threatened after Trump falsely accused them of vote-rigging. Maybe it reminds you of the threats against the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, and all the government officials who have prosecuted or sued him, and all the judges who have ruled against him, and all the election officials who refused to break the rules and rig votes for him, and all the Republicans who voted to impeach him.”

“In each of those cases,” Hayes continued, “Trump got away with intimidation and mafia-style, gangster threats because ordinary Republicans let him, or in many cases simply helped him, use the power of government to make their party politics a kind of official state religion, and bully anyone who got in their way.”

At the end of the segment, Hayes concluded that the GOP “is a party of a movement, built around a candidate for whom nothing is sacred, not even a military cemetery, not even the justice system, not even democracy, unless it serves his twisted purposes.”

Watch the clip below: