O’Donnell Rants at ‘Minority Government’ Supreme Court Ruling, Illegitimate Alito

The freak out over the leaking of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade permeated all the cable channels and networks on Monday night and Tuesday morning. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell offered possibly the most petulant, whining about the 2000 election.  

O’Donnell opened his show by ranting, “The government of minorities The Supreme Court, which is dominated by minorities, has the best example of minority-ruled government. These two presidents appointed these Supreme Court Judges to their posts, but they did not receive the highest number of votes.” 

Spewing anger, he continued, “George W. Bush, appointed the justice who wrote this opinion, he did not win the most votes in his presidential election, but he won the Electoral College.”

O’Donnell found additional blame for the possible fall of Roe, singling out the United States Senate:

Donald Trump appointed three of the deciding judges. Although he didn’t get close to the majority of votes, he was elected president of the United States because of the ability for minorities in government. That is the United States Senate every day. 

MSNBC might be most hurt if Roe gets overturned. On Morning Joe, the hosts called the potential decision “illegitimate” and a “nightmare scenario.” On Monday night, they compared it to banning interracial marriage. 

Below is a transcript. Click “expand” to read more: 

The Final Word
5/2/2022
10:00 pm 

RACHEL MADDOW: It’s a straight line from this ruling, not only to banning abortion instantly and potentially nationally, but to also preventing Americans from accessing birth control, in a ruling that is argued along the same lines as the established presidents that are starting on this opinion. It’s a fundamentally different world if this happens.

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: And included in this fundamentally different world, is the other part of what we’re experiencing tonight, it is minority government, minority-ruled government, and the Supreme Court is the most incredible exemplar of that. Two presidents appointed them to the Supreme Court, and they did not receive the highest number of votes. George W. Bush appointed this justice, he didn’t win the most votes but he was elected to the Electoral College. Donald Trump appointed three of the deciding judges. Although he didn’t win the presidential election with the highest number of votes, he was elected to the office of the president. His ability for minority rule, which the United States Senate provides every day, is the reason he received the presidency.

While Democrats are more popular than Republicans in the United States Senate election, they end up with less people voting in their favor for it. It is the result of all that.

…

O’DONNELL: And let’s consider what this Republican-controlled court does not respect. Their disrespect for the Republican-controlled Supreme Court that wrote Roe v. Wade is not acceptable. The decision was made in a 7-2 vote 49 years ago. Five of the five deciding judges for Roe versus Wade had been appointed by Republicans to be Supreme Court justices.

And in the last week or so, there’s been a very intense discussion especially in the world of Twitter about how much the Democratic Party has moved to the left in recent years or how much the Republican Party has moved to the right, there is no better demonstration about the extreme direction towards the right that the Republican Party is moved, when you look at the five Republican appointed justices in 1973, who voted for Roe versus Wade in a total of seven justices.

These five people, six possibly, vote tonight to repeal it and then insult the decision-makers.

… 

WENDY DAVIS:  And I know it may sound completely dramatic to say that, but I can assure you, there are lawmakers here and around this country, that’s their next goal. And that’s where we are headed.

O’DONNELL: Yes, I don’t think there’s any language in dealing with what we’re learning tonight that is overly dramatic. Samuel Alito’s decision, which Samuel Alito probably supports, requires that a twelve-year-old girl who was raped and beaten by her father be able to get an abortion. That’s what this does.

Samuel Alito along with a majority on the Supreme Court, all Washington Republicans elected want 13-year old girls to be required to continue their pregnancies to term no matter what happened to them. These people believe that these should be their children’s lives. This child should not have any other options. Cecile Richards, you’ve known this about their rhetoric for decades, but now it’s a reality, now they’re saying in writing to children, if you are pregnant as a child you must, you must have that baby.