CNN’s Jake Tapper Torpedoes Trump Immunity Appeal Rant With Bone-Dry One-Liner

CNN anchor Jake Tapper torpedoed former President Donald Trump’s rant about presidential immunity with an appropriately dry one-liner that echoed the judges who smacked down Trump’s appeal.

Hours before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Trump’s appeal in a 57-page opinion Tuesday, Trump posted a familiar rant from Trump on Truth Social, where he wrote:

IF IMMUNITY IS NOT GRANTED TO A PRESIDENT, EVERY PRESIDENT THAT LEAVES OFFICE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED BY THE OPPOSING PARTY. WITHOUT COMPLETE IMMUNITY, A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PROPERLY FUNCTION!

The three-judge panel responded to that argument in their scathing decision, and on Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, so did Tapper:

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I’m Jake Tapper.

We start today with our law and justice lead and a massive legal defeat for Donald Trump.

Today, a federal appeals court in D.C. unanimously ruled that Mr. Trump is not immune from prosecution for alleged crimes he may have committed during his presidency as he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The three federal judges strongly writing in their decision that, quote, “for the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become a citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution.”

The three female judges, two appointed by Democrats, one by a Republican, went even further than that today, however, repeatedly eviscerating citizen Trump’s behavior after the 2020 election as an attack on American institutions.

The judges writing, quote: “Former President Trump’s alleged efforts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election were, if proven, an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government. He allegedly injected himself into a process in which the president has no role. The counting and certifying of the Electoral College votes, thereby undermining constitutionally established procedures, and the will of the Congress,” unquote.

Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump and his legal team are signaling that they’re going to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially with the former president writing on his social media platform that, quote, “if immunity is not granted to a president, every president that leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party. Without complete immunity, a president of the United States would not be able to properly function,” unquote.

It’s odd, one might observe, that the republic has somehow managed to survive more than 200 years without this being an issue until Donald Trump tried to overturn the election.

The judges made a similar observation, and added that Trump himself knocked down his own argument:

Presidents have understood themselves to be subject to impeachment and criminal liability, at least under certain circumstances, so the possibility of chilling executive action is already in effect. Even former President Trump concedes that criminal prosecution of a former President is expressly authorized by the Impeachment Judgment Clause after impeachment and conviction.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.