in february, of 2021, joe biden had been president for less than a month. the united states senate was still in the middle of impeaching the previous president for stoking insurrection. the house impeachment managers, all of them democrats, were making the case that even though trump was no longer president, he had to be impeached because otherwise future presidents would be free to commit any crime or misdemeanor as long as they did so right before leaving office. to rebut that, trump s lawyers offered this counter argument. if my colleague on this side of the chamber actually think that president trump committed a criminal offense, and let s understand, a high crime is a felony and misdemeanor is a misdemeanor. the words haven t changed that much overtime. after he s out of office, you go and arrest him. so there is no opportunity where the president of the united states can run rampant in january at the end of his term and just go away scot-free. the department of just
the guns, kit is greater. think about those kids practicing the speeches at home, heartbreaking pleas for change from what is now known as the lockdown generation takes us off the air tonight. and on that note, i wish you all a very good and safe night. for all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thank you for staying up late, see you at the end of tomorrow. the end of tomorrow the united states senate was still in the middle of impeaching the previous president for stoking insurrection. the house impeachment managers, all of them democrats, were making the case that even though trump was no longer president, he had to be impeached because otherwise future presidents would be free to commit any crime or misdemeanor as long as they did so right before leaving office. to rebut that, trump s lawyers offered this counter argument. if my colleague on this side of the chamber actually think that president trump committed a criminal offense, and let s understand
people. this is now the second indictment that trump is facing since he went in office after manhattan prosecutors charged with 34 felony counts earlier this year over alleged hush money payments. and a post on his truth announcing the indictment, trump wrote the correct biden administration has informed by attorneys that i ve been indicted. i am an innocent man. tonight, trump posted a formative video repeatedly claiming that investigation is a hoax. politically motivated. they can t stop because its election interference at the highest level there is never been anything like what has happened, they figured that the way that they would stop us is by using what is called that s what this is. it s wolf warfare for the law. it s called election interference. they re trying to destroy the reputation. and they can try to win the election. joining us now is msnbc colleagues, ari melber and lawrence o donnell, also with us is laura jarrett, nbc news senior legal corresponde
types. the never-ending courtship of the far-right maga caucus. dan pfeiffer, claire mccaskill, thank you both for closing it out on this big, historic night of news. that does it for our show, we will see you again tomorrow. now, it is time for the last word with lawrence o donnell. good evening, lawrence. r good evening, alex. we re gonna continue covering what we re obviously gonna be covering for quite awhile. thank you, alex. i ll be watching. the criminal case of the united states of america, versus donald j trump, is underway tonight. in florida. where a sealed indictment has charged the former president the seven count indictment. the new york times is reporting tonight that the charges include willfully retaining national defense secrets and violations of the espionage act. making false statements, and an obstruction of justice conspiracy, according people familiar with the matter. donald trump has been ordered to surrender for arrest in processing an arraign
to the teflon don. josh marshall hugo lowell and andrew weissmann. appreciate it. that s all in alex on this thursday night. wagner tonight starts right now, good evening, alex. chris, what a thursday. accountability, i think that is the phrase of the day. accountability. yes. again, lots of things it seemed here to for unthinkable, becoming think-able as the other theme of the last few years. in some, ways unthinkable to donald trump. as much as he knew this was coming, now that it s happened, he s in a different league. he has made history, not the kind of history that i think you want to make. thank, you my friend, as always. you bet. thank you to you at home for joining us this evening. nbc news can now report that former president donald trump has been indicted in the special counsel s investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified documents. the indictment was filed in federal district court in miami. trump has been summoned to appear in federal