MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, a vociferous critic of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings, admitted Monday that even she was surprised by the way the high court, in ruling that presidents have immunity for “official” acts committed while in office, managed to come off as so favorable to Donald Trump.
She argued that the decision essentially gives presidents the ability to do “absolutely anything” without facing legal repercussions.
“I really did not expect that they would do this,” Maddow said during a panel discussion on the network Monday. “Donald Trump and his counsel asked for this 100 percent absolute immunity thing, which was insane. I would say they got 105 percent of what they were asking for.”
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The court, in a 6-3 vote which saw Trump’s three nominees join together to help form the majority, determined that former presidents are immune from prosecution for “official” acts. The ruling, which occurred more than four months after the court agreed to take up the case in an election year, was a “BIG WIN,” Trump said.
Maddow added moments later that questions raised during oral arguments in April, like the legality of a president ordering assassinations, seemed bizarrely acceptable to the court.
“The practical impact of what they have done is to give Trump immunity that even he and his counsel did not ask for. And given that the hypotheticals over the course of these arguments—as you rightly pointed out, included things like ‘Can a president assassinate a rival?’—I think we have to look at the Supreme Court’s affirmative answer to that—yes, you can—with as much seriousness as it deserves,” she said.
“This is a death squad ruling,” she continued. “This is a ruling that says, as long as you can construe it as an official or quasi-official act, you can do absolutely anything—absolutely anything!—and never be held accountable, not only while you are president, but forever.”
The MSNBC anchor warned: “This explicitly immunizes anything the president wants to do through the Justice Department, [and] all but explicitly justifies anything the president wants to do, full stop, to anyone. And that is as serious as it gets.”
