WHAT? Rudy Giuliani Sees the President as Above the Laws of Men

At one point, I thought former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani… aka… “America’s mayor” was just a funny guy, dazzled by the spotlight and in love with the cameras. And to be clear, maybe he always sounded like a nut when he appeared on the various news talk programs and I just didn’t notice. Half the time, when the TV is on, I’m watching with one eye and working on something else at the time, anyway.

With all that in mind, there comes a time when goofy, nutty, crazy, wacky… none of those things are enough. Being a little eccentric won’t excuse away everything, and Giuliani’s latest hot take over President Trump’s current legal headache (the Russia probe), is beyond the pale.

I also have to add that if I were James Comey, I’d be dipping back into my legal background, calling friends, and watching what goes on with the rest of this investigation extra carefully. This was next level insane.

According to Rudy Giuliani, while explaining the broad, constitutional privileges of the presidency, there is no scenario where a sitting president can be indicted. And by “no scenario,” he means even in the event of murder.

While speaking with the Huffington Post, Giuliani dropped his latest pearl of legal wisdom:

“In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted—I don’t know how you can indict while he’s in office. No matter what it is,” Giuliani told HuffPost’s S.V. Dáte. “If he shot James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day. Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.”

First of all, that seemed like a not-so-thinly veiled threat.

Am I overreacting? After all, the doddering former mayor admitted that he was using an extreme example. He was right about that. It was extreme, but he still said it, which means he believes it.

Also, why be so vile as to name a specific person?

You can believe James Comey was a lousy FBI director. You can call him a hack. You can disagree with everything he’s ever done in his career. What you do not do, especially if you’re a professional and someone with celebrity status, involved in a major, news-grabbing case, is give voice to the notion of murdering a specific person. To toss it out so casually shows a surreal disconnect from decency and commonsense.

Was he blowing a dog whistle for Trump’s more rabid MAGA base?

I’m not ready to say that because I’m not perfectly convinced that Rudy Giuliani is in complete control of his senses.

Could a comment like that trigger some of those red capped marauders?

I can’t say, but some of the conspiracy theories that have been pushed by some of the leading voices within the base have spurred immediate, potentially deadly actions.

Think a nut with a gun driving to a Washington pizza parlor to shoot up the joint and “rescue” children being held in a non-existent basement for the purposes of child sex-trafficking. 

Earlier on Sunday, Giuliani suggested that the president had the power to grant pardons, even for himself, if necessary. He did concede that it would likely end in his impeachment, if he tried.

It’s a difficult scenario to grapple with. I don’t think our founders ever intended for the nation to end up under the “leadership” of a corrupt reality TV clod. I imagine if they had even the slightest notion of what was coming, they would have written things very differently.

They’re apparently not the only ones who weren’t prepared for this. Is the president above the law, in even the extreme cases?

A former associate White House counsel pondered the question, and was likewise flummoxed.

“I would think the president can be tried for a crime that is related to the office,” the former counsel said, “but his personal crimes may be on hold during the presidency.”

Ok, so if he personally kills someone while in office, is that a personal crime or a crime related to the office?

At what other time in our history would we have ever even thought this was a conversation we needed to have?