MSNBC's live coverage of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Trump presidential immunity case
“I really did not expect they would do this,” said MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, talking about the Supreme Court’s ruling in Donald Trump’s presidential immunity case, finding that a president cannot be held liable for “official acts” committed as president.
“This is a death squad ruling,” Maddow said. “This is a ruling that says that as long as you can construe it as an official or quasi-official act, you can do anything. Absolutely anything, and never be held accountable, not only when you are president, but forever.”
“Donald Trump and his counsel asked for this 100 percent absolute immunity thing, which was insane,” Maddow said Monday night. “I would say they got 105 percent of what they were asking for.”
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 1: Nadine Seiler holds up a sign outside of the Supreme Court of the United ... [+]
Maddow told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that given the arguments raised in the case—which included suggestions that a president with unrestricted immunity could conceivably assassinate a political rival and call it an “official act”— “I think we have to look at the court’s affirmative answer to that, ‘yes, you can’ with as much seriousness as it deserves.”
“The only fix to this is to put someone in the White House, from here on out, who will not abuse the absolutely tyrannical power they have just been legally granted in perpetuity,” Maddow said.
“If you know anything about the founding principles of this country and our long-standing civic culture, you may be wondering where exactly in the Constitution, the so-called originalists on the Court, drew the justification for such a radical view of presidential power,” asked MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “And the answer, of course, is nowhere.”
“This can't be stressed enough, nowhere. They just made it up when, in fact, there was no such thing as absolute executive immunity for official action criminal prosecution until this morning, at 10:30am Eastern Time. No law professors taught it. It was not discussed in lower court rulings. It did not exist until when this decision came down, in that moment, it was called forth into being.”
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“This is the culmination of 40 years of devious and focused planning,” said MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Monday night. “On the part of it, everything that the Roberts Court has done, from affirmative action to voting rights to abortion to the regulatory state to executive power to this, has been the result of seeds that were planted.”
“Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, and John Roberts, were all coming of age in the DOJ and related agencies when this plan was effectively laid out by a right-wing conservatives, and they have with discipline and tenacity, delivered today.”
