‘We’re In a Dangerous Place!’ CNN’s Jake Tapper Goes Off On Trump Legalized Assassination Claim In Blistering Show-Closer
CNN anchor Jake Tapper pegged a blistering show-closing commentary to former President Donald Trump’s legal argument that a president could order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival and not face prosecution unless he were impeached and convicted first.
Trump’s attorney made that argument at a hearing on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last week.
On Sunday morning’s edition of CNN’s State of the Union, Tapper closed the show with a scathing commentary that began with that stunning courtroom moment and concluded with a dramatic question:
TAPPER: With the flurry of news this week, you can be forgiven if you missed one pretty important moment a few days ago in a D.C. courthouse, where Donald Trump and his legal team argued he has legal immunity for his actions regarding the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, part of special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump for conspiracy to obstruct that official proceeding, for example, with lies that incited violent and angry crowds —
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TRUMP: I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. RIOTERS: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And prosecution for conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy against rights, as in the right to vote, regarding his pressure campaign, for example, on elected officials to violate their oaths of office and deliver states that Biden won to him.
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TRUMP: I just want to find 11,780 votes.
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TAPPER: Plus, of course, a mendacious campaign. And it led to a dark, deadly day on the Capitol, with four Trump supporters dead, one police officer, Brian Sicknick, dead, and, in the aftermath, because of the horrific trauma of that day, several law enforcement officials later dying by suicide.
In court, Trump and his lawyers are claiming that he cannot be charged because of presidential immunity. But at least one of the judges, Florence Pan, tried to put their argument to something of a stress test.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
JUDGE FLORENCE PAN, D.C. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS: Could a president who ordered SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival who was not impeached, would he be subject to criminal prosecution?
D. JOHN SAUER, ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: If he were impeached and convicted first.
PAN: So your answer is no?
SAUER: My answer is qualified yes. There’s a political process that would have to occur.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
TAPPER: The answer was, no, that person would not be prosecutable.
To translate that from the legalese, Trump’s lawyers are arguing Trump as president could order an assassination of a political rival using SEAL Team Six without prosecution, unless he is first impeached by the House and then convicted by the Senate.
And that prompts this question. If a President Trump were to order the assassination of a political rival using SEAL Team Six, would a majority of the House of Representatives vote to impeach him? Would there be 67 U.S. senators willing to vote to convict him? Let’s restate this. According to Trump and his team, he could use the U.S. military to assassinate a political rival, and he could escape prosecution if 34 senators, Republicans, were willing to acquit him for such an action.
That prompted this from Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii:
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SEN. BRIAN SCHATZ (D-HI): Do you think 34 United States Senators stand ready to vote to acquit? I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Eight years ago, less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses of 2016, Donald Trump famously praised the loyalty of his supporters by saying this:
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TRUMP: I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: It is not difficult to imagine Trump getting votes from his ride-or-die congressional supporters, the ones who helped pave the path for what happened on January 6 by mounting challenges based on these election lies.
But what about the others, not ride-or-die, the mainstream Republicans? How would they vote? Do you remember what former Congresswoman Liz Cheney told me about why only 10 House Republicans voted to impeach Trump in the House for his role in the insurrection?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FMR. REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): There were members who told me that they were afraid for their own security, afraid, in some instances, for their lives.
And that tells you something about where we are as a country —
TAPPER: That’s terrible.
CHENEY: — if members of Congress aren’t able to cast votes or feel that they can’t because of their own security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: In a recent book, Senator Romney shared similar anecdotes.
Quote: “One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety. Why put his wife and children at risk if it wouldn’t change the outcome?” A member of Republican Senate leadership was talked out of voting to convict Trump in the Senate — quote — “‘You can’t do that,’ Romney recalled someone saying. ‘Think of your personal safety,’ said another. ‘Think of your children.’ The senator eventually decided they were right” — unquote.
Now, how do you think those fears might impact votes after this hypothetical assassination of a political rival?
We’re in a dangerous place right now as a country. A major swath of the United States has been lied to repeatedly by Republican leaders and MAGA media, such as Fox, people who know better, but who have bet on power over principle.
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FMR. GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, for all the people who have put their own personal ambition ahead of what’s right, they will ultimately have to answer the same questions that I had to answer after my decision in 2016.
Those questions don’t ever leave. In fact, they’re really stubborn. They stay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie looked out at Capitol Hill on January 7, 2021, and he hated what he saw and he hated the role he felt he had played in it.
And he feared that what might come next would be worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIE: I remember what Benjamin Franklin said when he was walking down the street in Philadelphia after the Constitutional Convention and a woman approached him on the street and said: “Mr. Franklin, what kind of government did you give us?”
And he said to the woman: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Can we?
Watch above via CNN’s State of the Union.
