EXCERPT (Courtesy of The Hill)
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Monday blasted President Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, for claiming the president could shoot former FBI director James Comey in the Oval Office and not be indicted, saying it's a talking point tyrants use.
Scarborough said on “Morning Joe” that the former New York City mayor’s claim was “literally out of a tyrant’s play book.”
“You pick the president’s sworn political enemy and then you put it out there about the shooting of him,” Scarborough said.
“And you let the president’s followers know that: Vladimir Putin could shoot his political rival and not be thrown in jail; Erdogan could do the same thing,” he added, referring to leaders in Russia and Turkey.
“Except this is in America,” Scarborough continued.
“What if Barack Obama had said in 2009, 2010 or let’s say Eric Holder here, what if Eric Holder had said, you know what Barack Obama could shoot Rush Limbaugh and he can’t be indicted,” Scarborough said. “Barack Obama could shoot George W. Bush and he couldn’t be indicted. The reaction from Republicans and the media would be just mind boggling.”
Trump infamously, or famously if you are a diehard fan, said he could stand on New York’s Fifth Avenue “and shoot somebody” and still not lose voters. (Scroll down for video.)
Today Rudy Guiliani is making the news because of his comment to HUFFPOST:
“If he shot James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day,” Giuliani said. “Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.”
While legal scholars debate whether Rudy is right about whether a president could or couldn’t be prosecuted for murder, I was struck by the normalizing of language like this.
Then I watched Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough rightly pointed out that Guiliani speaks for Trump, and that he is talking about the president assassinating James Comey.
When asked about the Trump pardoning himself by reporters Kellyanne Conway said he was speaking hypothetically. I expect when asked about this, and hopefully, about Guiliani’s comment, I expect Sarah Sanders will say the same thing.
In other words, if you get nailed for saying something outrageous you just claim it was a hypothetical. Perhaps not a well-stated hypothetical but still just a bunch of words not to be taken seriously, or as Kellyanne put it: “It’s a hypothetical exercise that's what you do. I wouldn't say you do it well but you do it often.” (She really said that.)
Nobody had the chutzpah to ask about what Guiliani said. “Why did he go there, why did he say ‘if he shot James Comey’ which is tantamount to saying murdering or assassinating him, why do we have a president through his lawyer even bringing up such a despotic and bloodthirsty hypothetical?
These are the questions that must be asked, and the answers must be demanded.
I know the answer. It is because Trump and some of his henchmen are malignant narcissists who have sadistic fantasies.
I doubt we’ll hear this answer from Sweet Sarah.
Here's a reminder of
Watch the 11-minute segment about this on Morning Joe.