US President Donald Trump speaks at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on October 13, 2025. Hamas handed over the 20 surviving Israeli hostages on October 13 under a ceasefire agreement, as the US president and other world leaders geared up for a summit on Gaza. The releases are part of a ceasefire agreement brokered by the US president, with Israel due in return to free nearly 2,000 detainees held in its jails in exchange. (Photo by Evan Vucci / POOL / AFP) (Photo by EVAN VUCCI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James–and suggestions others, like Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, may be next–are part of President Trump’s “retribution tour” aimed at settling grievances.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton Sunday, Maddow said Trump’s goal was to settle scores and send a message: to not challenge me. “I think that the most obvious answer is probably the real one, which is that they want to make it either illegal or terrifying to oppose him,” Maddow said on PoliticsNation. “And so they’re putting heads on pikes and putting those pikes up at the edge of the gates to the city, to say ”it’s not possible to criticize, let alone oppose, this president.”
The Justice Department indicted James Thursday for alleged mortgage fraud, making the attorney general the second of Trump’s foes to face criminal charges after former Comey, who was arraigned Wednesday on charges of making false statements to Congress and obstruction of justice–charges Comey called political retribution.
Referring to his daughter, Maurene, who was fired from her job at the Justice Department earlier this year, Comey said, “Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she’s right, but I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not either.”
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – OCTOBER 08: Activist Bill Christeson holds up a sign that reads “Show Trial” outside the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia’s Bryan Courthouse ahead of the arraignment of former FBI Director James Comey on October 08, 2025 in Alexandria, Virginia. Comey will be arraigned today after being indicted by a Virginia grand jury on charges of making a false statement and obstruction during congressional testimony in 2020. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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On MSNBC, Maddow said that the clear message to anyone who’d dare to question or oppose the president is “if you do, look what we’re going to do to you and your family and your career and your livelihood and your reputation. And I think that’s all it is…they don’t have anybody holding them back, and so they’re going to do it as long as they can and as much as they can.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference regarding former US President Donald Trump and his family’s financial fraud case on September 21, 2022 in New York. – James filed a civil suit against former President Donald Trump and his family for overstating asset valuations and deflating his net worth by billions for tax and insurance benefits. James told journalists her office is seeking that the former president pay $250 million in penalties, as well as banning his family “from running NY business for good” and barring him and his company from purchasing property in the state for five years. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
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“This is not the way the us justice system is supposed to work,” Maddow told Sharpton. “Anybody who sees all these U.S. attorneys firing, getting fired and resigning and stepping out, having to bring in some insurance lawyer from the mid-level ranks of the of the White House, who’s never prosecuted a case before, to learn on the job about how to bring an indictment.”
“I mean, I think any adult who understands about how the American rule of law works knows that this is wrong,” she continued. “And I think that this will cost him soft support, even if his fanatical supporters would follow him into hell.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2025/10/13/rachel-maddow-they-want-to-make-it-illegal-or-terrifying-to-oppose-trump/
