Joe Scarborough: Trump’s threats to jail his political enemies could backfire

This is an adapted excerpt from the Dec. 11 episode of “Morning Joe.”

During an interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” President-elect Donald Trump said some members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack should be imprisoned. “Everybody on that committee … for what they did, yeah, honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump told Welker. 

Trump’s plan to jail his political enemies once he returns to the White House is incredibly short-sighted. It’s a move that would not only be bad for the country and Congress, but also bad for Trump himself — for three reasons: 

The first is that it would get in the way of any hope Trump had of passing legislation. The margin in the House is incredibly tight and the president-elect will likely need the help of Democrats to get his policies through the chamber. Trump has said time and again that he wants to get a deal with Democrats on immigration. If he tries sending former or sitting members of Congress to prison, I doubt Democrats will want to work with Trump on his legislative priorities.

Number two, it would actually draw attention back to the attack on the Capitol. Now, as we get further and further away from Jan. 6, many people may be buying into the propaganda Trump and other Republicans pushed on the campaign trail. 

But we should remember, at least 20 million Americans tuned in for the Jan. 6 committee’s first prime-time hearing. People were riveted by the testimony. They were deeply concerned by what happened at the Capitol. The last thing you want to do is draw people’s attention back to that moment.

And finally, the third thing is, if you arrest people like former Rep. Liz Cheney or Rep. Bennie Thompson, you make them political heroes. One of the reasons many people believe Trump got re-elected was because he was sitting at a defendant’s table for weeks. It made him a martyr. If he turns around and makes someone like Cheney a martyr, he only makes her stronger and more powerful.

So, how does it end for Trump if he tries to put Cheney or Thompson in jail for simply doing their job? We may soon find out.

Allison Detzel contributed.