Even after having a full day to digest the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, the Tuesday cast of MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart Reports could not manage to accurately inform their audience of what the Court actually ruled. Instead, guest host Katy Tour and her roundtable of legal analysts claimed the Court’s “circular” and “illogical” ruling held the Constitution gives the president the power to violate the Constitution.
Asking no one in particular, Tur wondered, “I want to ask one more question. So, and this is how I read it, you tell me if it's wrong because you guys are legal minds and I am, you know, just playing one on television. I read it as you can use it—they're reading the Constitution as saying it implies an authority or implies immunity to a president so much so, so broadly, that even his motivations can't be questioned if he was trying to violate the Constitution, so it was circular. Is that an incorrect reading of it?”
Legal correspondent Lisa Rubin concurred with Tur’s assessment, “No, I don't think so. There are a lot of things about the decision that are sort of tautological and there are a lot of things about it that are just simply illogical.”
After Rubin went on about Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s concurrence, where she argued that former President Donald Trump’s conduct in the Georgia election case does not constitute an official act, Tur asked, “Are they saying the Constitution protects the president from—allows the president to violate the Constitution?”
They are not. You can still sue to stop an action you believe is unconstitutional or illegal, but you can’t throw former President Barack Obama in jail for signing an executive order he previously admitted he didn’t have the authority to enact.
“If the President claims authority to act but in fact exercises mere ‘individual will’ and ‘authority without law,’ the courts may say so” pic.twitter.com/q9fYUTH46R
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) July 1, 2024
Nevertheless, former Manhattan assistant D.A. and MSNBC legal analyst Catherine Christian also affirmed Tur’s reading of the majority opinion, “Well, put that way, yes, basically, he has absolute immunity for his core constitutional function.”
Tur imagined a hypothetical where, “I’m the president, so I can do what I want even if I am trying to violate the Constitution, which is what Donald Trump was accused of doing in 2020.”
Again, that is not what the Court held, but Tur’s misrepresentation of the ruling plus an echo chamber of multiple legal analysts will not stop her from trending on Twitter as MSNBC viewers rage that she’s a secret Republican.
Here is a transcript for the July 2 show:
MSNBC Jose Diaz-Balart Reports
7/2/2024
11:09 PM ET
KATY TUR: I want to ask one more question. So, and this is how I read it, you tell me if it's wrong because you guys are legal minds and I am, you know, just playing one on television. I read it as you can use – they’re reading the Constitution as saying it implies an authority or implies immunity to a president so much so, so broadly, that even his motivations can't be questioned if he was trying to violate the Constitution, so it was circular. Is that an incorrect reading of it?
LISA RUBIN: No, I don't think so. There are a lot of things about the decision that are sort of tautological and there are a lot of things about it that are just simply illogical. You know, to point out, to pick up on Catherine’s point about Amy Coney Barrett and her concurrence in part. She drops a footnote saying, like, it's lost on her why the fake elector scheme could plausibly be official, that the president has no role whatsoever in the administration of federal elections. To her, there's no analysis that needs to be done. She says squarely the fake elector scheme in its totality is private conduct, but that's not how the majority sees it despite admissions from Trump’s lawyers at oral argument.
TUR: Are they saying the Constitution protects the president from —allows the president to violate the Constitution?
CATHERINE CHRISTIAN: Well, put that way, yes, basically, he has absolute immunity for his core constitutional function.
TUR: So, I’m the president, so I can do what I want even if I am trying to violate the Constitution, which is what Donald Trump was accused of doing in 2020.
