MSNBC Historian: Trump ‘Crime Spree’ Indictment Means Presidents Must Now Be ‘Less Lawless and Renegade’ Than They’ve Been Last 200 Years

MSNBC’s Michael Beschloss on Sunday said that the indictment of Donald Trump is not only a major historic event but will signal an end to “lawless and renegade” presidents like America has had for two centuries.

Speaking with Ali Velshi, Beschloss said his assessment of the historic signficance is neither pro-Trump nor anti-Trump, but that ending Trump’s “crime spree” will change the office.

Velshi began with a screenshot and reading of Beschloss’s tweet from Thursday saying to “remember where you were when you heard this news” of Trump’s indictment, saying his guest has a “deep sense of how profound this moment is.”

“I think it’s a good moment,” said Beschloss. “And that’s not a pro-Trump or an anti-Trump comment. It means that presidents are going to be less lawless and renegade than they’ve been for, or at least been allowed to be for over two centuries.”

He said that there is “a very good chance that Donald Trump has been on a crime spree,” and what could we expect but for that to happen when it has been treated as “holy scripture” that “you can’t indict an ex-president,” a thought for which he laid responsibility on Gerald Ford speaking about Richard Nixon considerably more recently than two centuries ago.

He concluded that with Trump’s indictment and the possibility of multiple additional criminal charges in the offing that, “the rule of law is being restored to the highest office in the land.”

VELSHI: Michael Beschloss, a friend of the show, and NBC News presidential historian, who’s got a deep sense of how profound this moment is in the context of American history. Michael, good morning to you. This indictment is so significant that you tweeted, ‘Remember where you were when you heard this news.’ So tell me what you what you’re making of the moment that we’re in.

BESCHLOSS: Well, you know, here we are, I think it’s a good moment. And that’s not a pro-Trump or an anti-Trump comment. It means that presidents are going to be less lawless and renegade than they’ve been for, or at least been allowed to be for over two centuries. You know, from everything we know, Ali — and we’ll know a lot more when we see that indictment on Tuesday, and especially if there are later indictments in Georgia and other places — there’s a very good chance that Donald Trump has been on a crime spree, almost, with possible criminal offenses before he became president, while he became president, culminating in an insurrection, and since he became president.

And he didn’t do those things, if he did them, because he wanted to be in prison and didn’t care about being convicted. He did it because he thought he could beat the system. And one reason that would have led him to think that is that there was this thought that really comes from Gerald Ford, but it’s been treated like the holy scriptures, that you can’t indict an ex-president.

Ford said about Nixon in 1974, ‘the country could never be through such a trauma as that you would see if a president went on trial.’ Well, as a result of that and impeachments, which are toothless. Four impeachments, zero removals. And also a Nixon-era Justice Department ruling that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

Well, what do you expect but a president like Donald Trump who is going to be lawless and renegade? My point is that at that moment on the 30th of March, one reason why that’s a moment in history is that the rule of law is being restored to the highest office in the land.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.