Maddow: Political science teaches us that in the context of a democracy, authoritarians, all other things being equal, should be expected to get reelected because authoritarians should be expected to use the powers of the state to get reelected.
And that general principle has loomed for me over the leadership of President Trump throughout his first term in office because that's what I have been expecting about how he would try to secure a second term in office.
I did not expect that Trump's lawyers would lay down a legal framework to try to pre-clear him for such actions, but that's what we're seeing here today.
