Ex-White House Ethics Lawyer Thinks This ‘Besetting Sin’ May Ultimately Trigger Trump’s Downfall

Former Obama White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen on Monday warned that Donald Trump’s power grabs could ultimately backfire on the president.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight,” Eisen (who also served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic) said the lesson he’s taken from people who’ve experienced “democratic backsliding” in their own countries, only for them to recover, is that “the besetting sin, the greatest danger of self-destruction that dictators have, is overreach.”

“In a sense, the phrase is, ‘The worse, the better,’” Eisen explained. “So, the American people will not let him get away with that. The courts alone won’t save us, but the people are the ultimate guardrail and the ultimate safeguard.”

Eisen said he sees signs of voters pushing back against Trump.

“They don’t like it,” he said. “So, I’m hopeful that we will be strong enough to stand up to his shenanigans.”

But he grimly cautioned: “It will get worse.”

Anchor Symone Sanders-Townsend had earlier talked about how Trump’s administration truly believes “that when the president does something, it is legal, regardless” of what it is.

Trump’s team wants “us to be in a place where, when not just the Insurrection Act but I think even martial law is invoked, nobody bats an eye,” she added.

Trump, though, is “in a race against time,” she argued, noting that “what happens in tomorrow’s elections could accelerate, frankly, his authoritarian tendencies.”

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