Fox News Dullard Pretty Sure Trump Can Bend Law To His Will, Just Like Presidential Hero Richard Nixon
Will Cain isn’t a smart man.
Donald Trump whined Sunday on Truth Social that the FBI seized documents from Mar-a-Lago that were covered under attorney-client privilege. Trump's buddies at "Fox & Friends” were gullible enough to accept what he said at face value, and host Will Cain asked guest Andrew McCarthy, a former US attorney, if Trump could “get his property back” right away.
McCarthy said Trump’s lawyers could file a motion, but warned, "I'd be a little leery to do that if I thought they were investigating me because if you take a position and then they charge you, you’re kind of locked into what you said. So if he doesn’t absolutely need that material back, I think I’d lay low in the tall grass for a while and see what they do.”
Trump is a singularly graceless liar, whose story keeps changing like a child explaining why a vase is broken or why the family’s nuclear secrets are missing. He doesn’t want to get “locked into” any official statements because that’s a good way to get locked into a cell.
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Let’s look at what Cain later asked guest Bill Bennett, because it’s truly absurd.
“Fox host defends Trump’s handling of top secret documents: “President Nixon said, that if the president does it, that it is not illegal. Is that not truly the standard when it comes to classified documents?” https://t.co/xGTOhrP52O”
— Media Matters (@Media Matters) 1660491400
CAIN: You've been around, you've covered and been within administrations for quite some decades.
Bennett was Ronald Reagan's garbage secretary of education and led the failed War on Drugs under George H.W. Bush. He reportedly spoke on the phone with Trump just before he incited an attack on the Capitol. These aren’t great credentials.
CAIN: You know, if I listen to alternative media today, oh, classified documents, no one is above the law, right? The rule of law applies to everyone. I'm curious. When it comes to classified documents, famously, President Nixon said, that if the president does it, that it is not illegal. Is that not truly the standard when it comes to classified documents? The president has the ability to at any time declassify anything.
Oh my God, this guy’s the biggest fool who ever fooled on a fool-focused network. During Richard Nixon’s 1977 interview with David Frost, he was asked if the president could unilaterally decide that "it's in the best interests of the nation, and do something illegal?” Nixon replied, "Well, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
However, this was hardly considered a definitive statement about presidential powers, and even Nixon himself realized he’d fucked up good and tried to clean up after himself in a Washington Star op-ed.
"First, I do not believe and would not argue that a President is above the law. Of course he is not. The question is what is the law and how is it to be applied with respect to the President in fulfilling the duties of his office.
"Precedents over the years have sanctioned some degree of latitude in the use by presidents of emergency situations. I believe such latitude is necessary, and at times vital. My insistence that this latitude does not place president above the law is not a semantic quibble. To me, it is a vital distinction which goes to he heart of our constitutional system."
Perhaps Cain was sick the day they taught history in history class, but Nixon resigned in disgrace. He accepted a pardon from his successor, so it’s not as if he wanted to test his imperial presidency theory in court. However, Nixon agreed that it was “absurd” to argue anything a president might do is per se legal.
There’s a process to presidential declassification of documents. They aren’t just declassified for the president specifically, but the public in general, so it’s something you need to track. The president also can’t declassify nuclear secrets on his own. Congress passed a law, the Atomic Energy Act, in 1946 that established a process for downgrading those protections.
This is a silly debate, considering Republicans and Fox News repeatedly declared Barack Obama a “lawless” wannabe Caesar when he enacted DACA through executive order, which was perfectly legal and not light treason.
Anyway, can’t believe we have to say this, but Richard Nixon is not a positive presidential model.
[ Media Matters ]
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