The tightly controlled format of MSNBC’s liberal news programming unraveled when a former never-Trump January 6 witness announced that he has renounced Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to embrace his former boss. Far-left network host Ari Melber was nearly left speechless after hosting a panel featuring former U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, a Trump appointee who had been one of the sharpest critics of the former president during his first impeachment in 2019. Despite his past reservations, Sondland told Melber and his fellow panelists that the Biden-Harris administration represents the bigger “threat to democracy.”
“I don’t stand by” former criticism of Trump, Sondland said during a Wednesday segment. “I’ve now lived four years under the Biden-Harris policies, and I have to say that those policies are not only becoming an existential to our country’s way of life but to our allies as well.” He tried to finish his point, but Melber felt he had to interrupt. “I’ll let you finish, but this is so striking. You said it was a ‘no for me’ after J6, and here we are right now, and you’re saying it’s a yes for you.”
“I did” oppose Trump, Sondland admitted, but now “it is a yes for me,” he said, smiling back at the host. Then, Melber’s head nearly exploded as he listened to Sondland explain how his feelings on Trump have shifted since then. “That is how badly the Biden-Harris team have prosecuted their job,” the former Trump official said.
U.S. House lawmakers initiated impeachment proceedings in 2019 following allegations from Sondland and other diplomats that President Trump pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter Biden’s work at Burisma in exchange for approximately $1 billion in foreign aid. After initially telling Congress there was “no quid pro quo” between Trump and Ukraine, he later recalled a conversation in which the “resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur unless Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.”
In 2022, Gordland published a book discussing his time in the Trump administration and reflecting on the Capitol riots of January 6th, 2021. “[H]e really f—–d that up,” he told the Wall Street Journal in reference to Trump. “I won’t support him.” The MSNBC host asked Sondland about J6 being an “attack on American democracy” that is “bigger than any policy.” But that’s not so, the former ambassador replied. “I am seeing so many attacks on democracy that eclipse January 6th. If you want to ask me what those are – ” he continued before Melber turned to another guest in frustration.
WATCH:
The best part about this clip is Peter Navarro’s smirk about half way through.
Even never Trumpers are coming home. pic.twitter.com/ny1mcENF3o
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 3, 2024