On Meet The Press yesterday, Rachel Maddow challenged Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) on the issue of the Miranda warning read to the attempted Christmas bombing suspect, correcting Schock’s assertion that Abdulmutallab stopped talking after he was read his rights.
“What’s the basis of the assertion that reading someone their Miranda rights in unsafe? We did that with every single person who’s been arrested on terrorism charges since 9/11,” Maddow said.
“No one’s ever made an issue of it until the Obama administration and this case with Abdulmuttalab. Really, what’s the problem with being read your rights that wasn’t the problem before?”
When Schock responded that Umar Abdulmutallab “did in fact stop cooperating with our intelligence” after being read the Miranda warning, Maddow fired back, “That’s not true, actually.”
Here’s the video starting at about 2:45 (hat tip Think Progress):
It’s worth noting here that there are conflicting reports about whether Abdulmutallab stopped cooperating with FBI interrogators immediately before or immediately after he was read the Miranda warning on Christmas evening.
The AP suggests that he stopped talking after he was read the warning. The Los Angeles Times has quoted an anonymous source saying “that Abdulmutallab was not read his rights until he made it clear that he was not going to say anything else.” Abdulmutallab was reportedly interrogated for about an hour on the afternoon of Christmas, before he was read his rights. The conflicting accounts bear on the second interrogation that night.
However, no one is disputing the reports that Abdulmutallab began talking to authorities again in January, at least partly because of the cooperation of his family.
