CNN Plays Infamous Nixon Clip to Put Trump Immunity Claims in Historical Context

After Thursday’s arguments at the Supreme Court on whether or not a president should have full immunity from criminal prosecution, CNN’s Anderson Cooper turned to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin for some historical context and played her a famous clip of the late former President Richard Nixon.

The quote came from the 1977 interview conducted by broadcasting icon David Frost after Nixon resigned from office in disgrace following the Watergate scandal. Cooper played a short clip, but here is the extended exchange:

Frost: So, what, in a sense, you’re saying is that there are certain situations … where the president can decide that it’s in the best interest of the nation, or something, and do something illegal?

Nixon: Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.

Frost: By definition?

Nixon: Exactly. Exactly. … If, for example, the president approves something, approves an action, because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of a significant magnitude, then the president’s decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they’re in an impossible position.

Nixon resigned in 1974 before he could be impeached by the House.

Cooper asked Goodwin for her reaction to the quote, and she said:

I think the framers would be rolling over in their beds if they heard him say something like that. I mean, the whole idea of the Constitution, they put the Congress as Article I rather than the presidency. There were checks and balances on the president. The idea that simply by sending to that office, you can do whatever you want, and that makes it a law, I mean, that’s an absurd thought. And we’re not really dealing with that right now. My guess is what everybody else is saying, that the Supreme Court will reject that idea of absolute immunity, but somehow throw it back on the courts, the lower courts, which means it’ll be delayed, and the accountability will never be had.

Watch the video above via CNN.