Those Harvard Law types sure have some wacky ideas . . .
Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci—holder of the world record for shortest tenure as White House communications director—made a preposterous proposal on CNN's New Day this morning.
In introducing the former Trump fan-turned-bitter-foe after being fired, co-host John Berman went out of his way to mention that Scaramucci is a Harvard Law grad:
"Joining us now, former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. Anthony, you are a graduate of Harvard law school."
But within minutes, Scaramucci was suggesting something so absurd that it would have gotten him flunked out of a first-year course. The Mooch proposed that the Justice Department be taken out of the president's control and be "moved over to the Supreme Court." He did so in the context of condemning Attorney General Bill Barr for acting as what Michael Cohen had described to CNN yesterday as being President Trump's new "fixer." Said Scaramucci:
"It almost begs the question, do we need a constitutional amendment to move the Justice Department over to the Supreme Court? To take it out of the hands of a malignant leader."
Scaramucci did acknowledge that to carry out his hair-brained scheme, a constitutional amendment would be required. But even so, it's a crazy notion. The separation of powers, and checks and balances, are fundamental principles of the Constitution. But here you'd be taking a key element of the executive branch and putting it under the control of the judicial branch. That would make as much sense as putting Congress under the control of the president!
Even Berman realized how crazy that was:
Look, there are constitutional issues with what you're proposing, by the way, because you would have lawyers arguing in front of Supreme Court in their own branch. Leave that aside, I get what you’re saying.
Note: the Mooch's word o' the day was "malignant." He used variations on the m-word four times in denouncing President Trump.
The Mooch's preposterous proposal of moving the Justice Department over to the Supreme Court was sponsored by Verizon, Carvana, and Dell.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
9/17/20
7:19 am EDTJOHN BERMAN: Joining us now, former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. Anthony, you are a graduate of Harvard law school.
. . .
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: What happens is, when you have a leader that's this malignant.
. . .
ALISYN CAMEROTA: We had Michael Cohen on yesterday [clip of her posing question to Cohen]: who is his new Michael Cohen? Who do you think is the new fixer for President Trump?
MICHAEL COHEN: Attorney General Bill Barr.
CAMEROTA: Anthony, I mean, he thinks that it is just what you just said. That he thinks that that’s who’s doing the fixing for President Trump now.
SCARAMUCCI: Right. So he’s in the office of the attorney general, and he’s supposed to be serving the American people, but he’s doing that for the president. So I — you know, I think Michael’s 100% right about that. So it almost begs the question, do we need a constitutional amendment to move the Justice Department over to the Supreme Court? To take it out of the hands of a malignant leader . . . We had this malignant leader that has an acolyte in that position that’s his supplicant. And so, maybe we have to move it, okay, to protect the institutions of our democracy and the checks and balances of the system.
. . .
BERMAN: Look, there are constitutional issues with what you're proposing, by the way, because you would have lawyers arguing in front of Supreme Court in their own branch. Leave that aside, I get what you’re saying.
. . .
SCARAMUCCI: Can I just say something about the Constitution? Remember, what I’m calling for is an amendment to the Constitution. And there would be ways to break that out.
CAMEROTA: I just don’t know if that’s going to happen before Election Day.
SCARAMUCCI: No, of course it’s not going to happen before Election Day . . . We’re in overtime for a constitutional amendment, and it will be to check the malignancy of a potential future leader. We’ve learned a lot from President Trump and what he’s capable of.
CAMEROTA: You know what’s great about this, Anthony? Is that I feel like I don’t have to go to Harvard law school now --
SCARAMUCCI: Is that right?
CAMEROTA: Because you’re just giving us sort of the shortened Cliff Notes.
