I really did not expect that they would do this, she said. Donald Trump and his counsel asked for this 100% absolute immunity thing, which was insane. I would say they got 105% of what they were asking for.
She pointed out that Trumps attorneys had made the case that immunity should cover even extreme situations such as a president assassinating a political rival.
The court, Maddow said, appears to have affirmed that position.
This is a death squad ruling, she said. This is a ruling that says that as long as you can construe it as an official or quasi-official act, you can do absolutely anything absolutely anything and never be held accountable, not only while you are president, but forever.
Trump, she said, has activated pro-Trump paramilitary groups and groups that use slogans such as right-wing death squads. Trump has also spoken openly of using the Justice Department against his rivals.
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The court, she fears, has essentially authorized all that and more.
This explicitly immunizes anything the president wants to do through the Justice Department but all but explicitly justifies anything the president wants to do, full stop, to anyone, she said. And that is as serious as it gets.
Maddow said no one reacting to the ruling has said theyre worried about what President Joe Biden might do now that the court has granted broad immunity.
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The only solution to this, the only way out of this, is to have non-criminals and non-authoritarian-minded would-be dictators, win presidential elections. That is the only way to fix this, she said. Because if you have somebody who is a criminal, or is authoritarian-minded, when they get in there armed with this ruling, there is nothing they cannot do.
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See her full discussion with MSNBCs Chris Hayes below:
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