Rudy Giuliani made the mistake of opening his mouth this Sunday morning, again. This time, it was to tell us that President Donald Trump could pardon himself if Robert Mueller indicts him, but he has no intention of doing so. It was at that point that the bodies of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin and Adams all rose from the grave and walked up Pennsylvania Avenue with a furious look. Okay, that’ is sort of click baitish sensationalism because they haven’t done that, yet. But if they ever would or should, it would be when a president begins to believe this about himself.
During an interview on ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Giuliani if the president has the power to pardon himself.
“He’s not, but he probably does,” Giuliani replied. “He has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesn’t say he can’t.”
Combine this with my story last night on the President believing that he cannot be convicted of obstruction of justice because the president cannot obstruct justice, and is essentially above the law, and we are talking one strong dictatorship being set-up if people buy this.
****UPDATE****
Rudy made the exact same claim on Meet the Press, though he was more circumspect, stating that he hadn’t written the memo, and that Trump was in no way contemplating using that power. At that point, Chuck Todd asked, “Then why put it in there? It looks like a threat.” Rudy had no good answer, in fact, I’m trying to make sense of the words he used for the third time and cannot do so.
ABC coulnd’t help itself and jumped the gun by announcing Rudy’s pronouncement by tweet.
JUST IN: Does Pres. Trump have the power to pardon himself?
“He’s not, but he probably does,” Rudy Giuliani tells @GStephanopoulos. “He has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesn’t say he can’t.” https://t.co/YQ29ClaVMa pic.twitter.com/jDXl1jOnuV
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 3, 2018
