After the Supreme Court agreed to review former-President Trump’s immunity case, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow suggested Thursday it could lead to Trump's rise as a dictator.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether former President Trump has immunity from prosecution in the Special Counsel's federal election interference case, an election-year dispute that will have blockbuster legal and political implications for the nation. The justices have fast-tracked the appeal, and will hear oral arguments in late April, with a ruling on the merits expected by late June. Trump's criminal trial has been put on hold pending resolution of the matter.
The hosts of multiple MSNBC shows lamented the decision and gathered to discuss it for Wednesday episode of "All In with Chris Hayes." The eponymous host said he was "mad" at himself for not expecting this outcome all along.
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Later in the discussion, Maddow outlined a scenario where the court, she argued, would inevitably rule that presidents are not legally immune in perpetuity for actions they took while in office, suggesting this will be the incentive that spurs a hypothetical President Trump to install himself as dictator for life.
"The idea that they’re going to side with him on immunity is unthinkable, and also beside the point," Maddow argued. "The conclusion that we can arrive at now, based on what they have done, without having to wait for the ruling, is that they’re ensuring that Trump will not face trial, and when they inevitably rule that presidents aren’t immune from prosecution after they leave office, what that will tell Donald Trump, if by then he is president, is that he can never leave the office of the presidency."
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Maddow then theorized further, that "if he is voted out in 2028, he cannot leave office, and he’s welcome to commit any crimes he wants to as long as he is still president, in order to ignore the result of that election and stay in power for life because otherwise he’s going to go to prison when he gets out. That is the way this is going to go, unless the country votes Trump out, votes for Biden, and against Trump in November."
Maddow, one of the faces of MSNBC's political coverage, said earlier this year it was the "end of politics" if Trump won again. Trump is trying to become only the second president ever to return to office after previously losing a re-election bid, the other being Grover Cleveland.
"What he's offering is what he both inherently offers and now, more and more, explicitly offers, which is that ‘if you pick me, that’s the end of politics,'" Maddow said last month.
