the kicker

Did Blago Make "Self-Condemning News" On Maddow’s Show?

January 28, 2009

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, directly after her interview with Gov. Blagojevich last night, wondered on-air:

Did he just confess to me that he broke the law but that he thinks it’s okay because he broke the law for a good reason? Second question: Is he mounting a Robin Hood defense for how he tried to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat? Third question: Did he just explain his state of mind for extorting the Chicago Tribune?

Might, as Maddow mused, “tonight’s transcripts…end up in the criminal proceedings against him?” Maddow posed these questions to her guest, Scott Mendeloff (a former federal prosecutor), who explained how some of what Blagojevich said could hurt him.

That conversation:

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.