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Michael Steele MSNBC The Weekend 1-5-25 Sunday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Weekend was in meltdown mode over a Trump get-together at Mar-a-Lago for a screening of a documentary about John Eastman’s legal tribulations.  

Rudy Giuliani and Peter Navarro were in attendance, and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni was also at the screening. The Weekend panelists portrayed the get-together as a celebration of the events of January 6th.

Co-host Symone Sanders called the event “sickening.” 

Co-host Michael Steele described it as an “in-your-face mf-er,” and an “abomination” that made people feel “slime.”

Steele also claimed Trump doesn’t “give a crap” about constitutional norms, and that he will be lying when in taking the oath of office he pledges to protect and defend the Constitution. 

Sanders worked in a nasty little shot at Meloni, mentioning that as a teenager [Meloni was 15 at the time], she had been a member of the youth branch of a neo-fascist movement. Sanders initially confused Meloni with Antonio Melani, a dress designer.

Meloni was at Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and discuss several issues, including her concerns over the arrest by Iranian authorities of an Italian journalist, in likely retaliation for the arrest a few days earlier, at the request of the United States, of an Iranian suspected of supplying drone components to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. 

John Eastman is a constitutional scholar who undertook a series of efforts on behalf of Trump’s challenges to the 2020 election. Whatever one thinks of the merits of Eastman’s initiatives, it is undeniable that he suffered calamitous consequences as a result. Eastman was:

  • Forced out of his law faculty position at Chapman University.
  • Disbarred in his home state of California.
  • Made the object of a criminal referral by the January 6th committee.
  • Indicted on criminal charges in Georgia [courtesy Fani Willis] and Arizona.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
The Weekend
1/5/25
8:00 am ET

SYMONE SANDERS: New this morning, Donald Trump hosted a party at Mar-a-Lago last night. And that’s not the news. The news is that the party was celebrating his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The guest list included several key players in those efforts, like Rudy Giuliani and Michael Flynn.  Italy’s conservative Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, was also there. 

. . . 

MICHAEL STEELE: Vaughn [Hillyard], give us a sense of this room. I mean, just, the audaciousness of it. Just the in-your-face mf-er, you know? Yeah, we’re going to celebrate the overturning four years later of trying to overturn an election. 

. . . 

SANDERS: Let’s just say, let’s just put a finer point on it. This is sickening. This is sickening. I am sick. Peter Navarro, Jeffrey Clark, the people that went to the Capitol to take up arms against the United States government because the former president or the President of the United States at the time lied to them — because that’s what happened. Those people are not patriots. 

What Donald Trump did last night is a disgrace to this country. It’s a disgrace to the Constitution. 

. . . 

STEELE: Well, the reality, at least for me, goes to the heart of what Symone said. Folks, the slime you feel right now when you hear this story, that thing in your gut that goes, eww, this doesn’t seem right. 

To Kimberly’s point, we only have one president at a time. Trump doesn’t give a crap about that. He’s the man. Doesn’t matter. 

. . . 

Because they knew what they were doing was a violation of the 1887 law. And they were doing it anyway. So, Kimberly, how do reporters tell this story? Because I don’t want to hear sh–, I don’t want to hear, I almost said the bad word. All right, Kyle, be good. I don’t want to hear crap coming out of news agencies as if this is new. This is not new. 

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: Or as if this is normal. 

STEELE: Or as if this is normal. I mean, this event in Mar-a-Lago was an abomination. It shouldn’t have happened.

. . . 

SANDERS: And can I just say one other point about Antonio Melani? Georgia Meloni, not Antonio. That’s a clothing line in Dillard’s. 

STEELE: Isn’t that a dress? 

SANDERS: That’s a clothing line in Dillard’s. Look, the prime minister, people should not be surprised. She’s been politically active since she was a teenager. And I believe she was an activist in a neo-fascist party youth wing in Rome, honey. So write that up just like that. Because that’s what it is.

. . . 

And the fact that he’s about to be inaugurated, and to Alicia’s point, say the words that he swears to protect, uphold, protect, defend the Constitution, we know he’s lying. So we just know it. They all go sit here and pretend that those words mean something to him.