Trump to D.C. Circuit: Let Biden Assassinate Me

Yesterday, Donald Trump and his attorneys showed up at the D.C. Circuit Court to argue that presidents, once they leave office, and assuming they haven't been impeached and convicted in Congress, are absolutely immune from any official actions taken while in office.

It's an attempt to dismiss ... which case again? Right. The D.C./Jack Smith case: obstructing the 2020 election. As opposed to the Florida case (classified documents), the Georgia RICO case (conspiring to overturn the results in the 2020 Georgia vote), and the NY case (hush money to a porn star). Hard to remember them all.�

But yes, that's what they're arguing.�It took about two seconds for one of the three circuit court judges, Judge Florence A. Pan, to bring up the obvious hypothetical:

“Could a president order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival? That's an official act�an order to SEAL Team Six.”

Trump's lawyer, after much waffling, basically owned up to that.

What I love? The argument is not just an unethical argument that goes against the entirety of American democracy and rule of law; it's also monumentally stupid�for Trump. If it worked, if it became law, the first political rival who could be assassinated would be�Trump. Trump's team is basically imploring the court to assign kingly powers to BIDEN.

Which ... might not even be that bad. It could solve a lot of problems. Send SEAL Team Six to get rid of Trump, half the Republicans in Congress, and all Republican appointess on the U.S. Supreme Court. Then, with true jurists, relitigate and overturn. Done and done. Now let's tackle global warming.�

But I shouldn't joke. As Joyce Vance said on “The Cafe Insider” podcast with Preet Bharara:�“If the Supreme Court were to rule for Trump before we would even theoretically get to a new Trump presidency, Joe Biden could take steps that would prevent that from happening. ... In so many ways, this has always felt like a non-starter to me. Because if you think about what it means for Trump to win this argument, it essentially means the end of democracy as we know it.”