This morning the breathless cast on Morning Joe suggested Trump Attorney Rudy Giuliani suggested Trump could assassinate the FBI director and get away with it:
RAW STORY – “I understand that Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill watch this show a good bit — a lot of times in the gym,” Scarborough said. “Hi, how are y’all doing?”
Scarborough pointed out the chyron at the bottom of the screen, which read, “Giuliani: Trump could shoot Comey and not be indicted.”
“I want you to see the graphic at the bottom, because this is what Rudy Giuliani said this weekend,” he said. “Rudy Giuliani, who is speaking on behalf of the president, who is speaking with the president’s blessings and hasn’t been called back for saying this, parallels what Donald Trump said during the campaign, that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose people’s support — except now we’re in the legal realm.”
“…Rudy Giuliani, on behalf of the president of the United States, said that the president of the United States could assassinate an FBI director who is investigating him and not face indictment.”
…
Richard Haass, longtime president of the Council on Foreign Relations, warned that Trump and his allies had moved past trying to delegitimizing the special counsel investigation and were claiming extra-constitutional powers — and co-host Mika Brzezinski shuddered.
“And the right to murder now?” she said.
But Chris Cuomo, responding to this story on Twitter, ripped Morning Joe as ‘partisans’ who should stick to the truth (via Twitchy):
Partisans going too far like this allow an escape hatch for Rudy/Trump. Rudy never said potus can kill. He was taking about process of removing potus. Impeachment first. By going too far you lose high ground that Rudy should never have used that example. Stick to truth! https://t.co/yL0j0Yj9br
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) June 4, 2018
Cuomo was then challenged by some literature professor:
No, Chris. They were responding to the clear messaging of Giuliani and Trump. You are providing the escape hatch by splitting hairs on this craziness as if some fine legal distinction was at play
— fKen Jackson (@OrwellAcademy) June 4, 2018
He then hit back hard, doubling down:
Wrong. They are provocative. They rode Trump up and now are riding him down. Pundit prerogative. But Rudy was not saying potus has power to murder and you know it. It is about process. Stick to facts and you get to same criticism without weakness of hyperbole https://t.co/DYqqq5KsRg
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) June 4, 2018
Shockingly, Cuomo is not wrong about this. Here are the original comments by Giuliani in Huffpo:
“In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted,” Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost Sunday, claiming a president’s constitutional powers are that broad. “I don’t know how you can indict while he’s in office. No matter what it is.”
Giuliani said impeachment was the initial remedy for a president’s illegal behavior ― even in the extreme hypothetical case of Trump having shot former FBI Director James Comey to end the Russia investigation rather than just firing him.
“If he shot James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day,” Giuliani said. “Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.”
Giuliani is just talking about process. In fact he says once Trump is impeached they can do whatever they want to him. He’s just pointing out that impeachment must come first before indictment.
Seriously, you know you’re having a bad day when you are getting called out by the likes of Chris Cuomo and he’s right about it.
Also, did someone replace Chris Cuomo with his Earth 19 duplicate? (Flash joke!)