CNN’s Chris Wallace took his 1960 election-related book tour to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday, where he lamented that the “crazy” Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity has made Special Counsel Jack Smith’s life more difficult and sarcastically claimed it was “totally coincidental” that it was a 6-3 ruling along partisan lines with three Trump appointees in the majority.
Colbert led Wallace with more of a statement than a question, “The big news today everybody's covering is Jack Smith's filing in the 2020 election case, or rather, his evidentiary filing, having to do with whether Donald Trump's actions were official, in other words, someone in office, or someone seeking office.”
Wallace continued, “I mean, we went from 250 years without presidents having immunity for official acts, and nobody talked about that with Richard Nixon and Watergate or Ronald Reagan with Iran-Contra, but suddenly an official act, you couldn't break the law, which one, strikes me as complete nonsense and two, has resulted in Jack Smith having to write this brief saying, “Well, yeah, but when he did this, yeah, he was in the Oval Office, but he was using his private phone, so it was an unofficial act.”
Breaking into the DNC headquarters would be hard to justify as an official act and Reagan was never in danger of being prosecuted for reasons both related to the question of prosecuting a president and because of the lack of evidence against him.
Still, it can be hard to believe that Wallace was at Fox News not that long ago because he sounds like the rest of CNN. Later, he added:
Richard Nixon during Watergate in 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that he couldn't keep the tapes that were hidden. He had to—because it involved the possibility of a crime and had to be turned over. So, you know, the kind of feeling on the Supreme Court seemed to be up to that point, the precedent was that a president, as opposed to a precedent, was not shielded from the law. So, this was new law that the Supreme Court decided and, I don't know, the fact that it has a 6-3 conservative majority in three of the justices were appointed by Donald Trump, I'm sure, is totally coincidental.
Colbert concurred, “Nothing to do with it.”
As hard as it may be for Wallace and Colbert to see in the moment, the Court provided guidance for all presidents, past and future, not just the ones they don’t like. One day, they will be thanking the Court for its ability to see more than five minutes into the future.
Here is a transcript for the October 3-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
10/4/2024
12:08 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: The big news today everybody's covering is Jack Smith's filing in the 2020 election case, or rather, his evidentiary filing, having to do with whether Donald Trump's actions were official, in other words, someone in office, or someone seeking office.
CHRIS WALLACE: Right, because of the Supreme Court's crazy ruling.
COLBERT: Yes.
WALLACE: I mean, we went from 250 years without presidents having immunity for official acts—
COLBERT: Right.
WALLACE: -- and nobody talked about that with Richard Nixon and Watergate or Ronald Reagan with Iran-Contra, but suddenly an official act, you couldn't break the law, which one, strikes me as complete nonsense and two, has resulted in Jack Smith having to write this brief saying, “Well, yeah, but when he did this, yeah, he was in the Oval Office, but he was using his private phone, so it was on unofficial act.”
…
COLBERT: Richard Nixon, who features prominently in Countdown 1960. It's a beautiful cover. Don't even read the book. Just look at the cover. Show your friends.
WALLACE: No, no, no, what's inside it is even better than what's on the outside, but having said that, Richard Nixon during Watergate in 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that he couldn't keep the tapes that were hidden. He had to — because it involved the possibility of a crime and had to be turned over. So, you know, the kind of feeling on the Supreme Court seemed to be up to that point, the precedent was that a president, as opposed to a precedent, was not shielded from the law. So, this was new law that the Supreme Court decided and, I don't know, the fact that it has a 6-3 conservative majority in three of the justices were appointed by Donald Trump, I'm sure, is totally coincidental.
COLBERT: Nothing to do with it.
