Stephanie Ruhle, host of The 11th Hour, joined an MSNBC panel on Thursday night to gloat and bloviate about former President Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions. During the discussion, she contributed a novel theory, declaring with certainty that Trump’s continued supporters signaled a scary reality: “ultimate power” in the hands of the GOP.

Ruhle described her experience of various conversations with GOP donors, immediately following the verdict, “who in the last month have sort of coalesced around Donald Trump and said, you know, like, ‘I may have been with Nikki Haley, I may have liked Ron DeSantis, but no, Trump’s my guy.’” 

She recounted how “not one single person that I called seemed to be fazed,” and for some reason seemed bewildered that “no one I spoke to said he was innocent” but instead “went after Alvin Bragg.”

 

 

Ruhle then posited that such support substantiated a growing hunger for power, fueled by a complete disregard for the threat to democracy that a second Trump presidency would allegedly entail. 

Furthermore, she falsely reasoned that these donors were solely interested in an opportunity to indebt a prospective president, currently “weak and humiliated”:

So these smart successful business people don’t see…this group doesn't seem to care because they know now more than ever, Trump is especially weak and humiliated. So if they side with him now and stand with him publicly now, he is going to owe them. And what’s really scary when we’re talking about ultimate power, now there’s a whole universe of people who are saying ‘I’m gonna stand with this guy because he’s weak and when and if he wins, he will owe me a favor.’ This is a group of people who want to have ultimate power and this is a man who wants to be president again so we don't have a normal judicial system, who wants ultimate power.

Perhaps Ruhle feared that GOP donors would exercise this vast influence by expecting Trump to enact Republican legislation dismantling the Biden Administration’s policies.

She closed with an urgent message to “think about where we are,” evidently gripped by the terror of a menacing second Trump presidency.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

MSNBC The 11th Hour

5/31/2024

11:11:16 PM ET

STEPHANIE RUHLE: To me, today was all about power. As soon as we got the verdict, I was on the phone with all sorts of GOP donors, especially those who in the last month have sort of coalesced around Donald Trump and said, you know, like, “I may have been with Nikki Haley, I may have liked Ron DeSantis, but no, Trump’s my guy.” And down the line, not one single person that I called seemed to be fazed. 

But what was so interesting, no one I spoke to said he was innocent. They went after Alvin Bragg, they went after… And what's scary about that is why would all of these people, right? 

One of the ways you become a big GOP donor is because you have a lot of money, you’re successful at something. So these smart successful business people don’t see…this group doesn't seem to care because they know now more than ever, Trump is especially weak and humiliated. So, if they side with him now and stand with him publicly now, he’s going to owe them. 

And what’s really scary when we’re talking about ultimate power, now there’s a whole universe of people who are saying, “I’m gonna stand with this guy because he’s weak and when and if he wins, he will owe me a favor.” This is a group of people who want to have ultimate power and this is a man who wants to be president again so we don't have a normal judicial system, who wants ultimate power. 

And you have to think about this moment we’re in. 12 Americans, 12 jurors sat there for five weeks, hours and hours and hours, and made a decision. The justice system worked. And the fact there still are people out there, significant people saying “I'm okay with it,” that’s really a moment to think about where we are.

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