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Everybody loves it when Donald Trump goes on Fox News. The former president likes to talk to adoring allies, the propaganda network loves the ratings, his supporters enjoy fluff interviews, and the rest of us like it because, in this safe space, Trump often confesses to crimes.
Like this weekend, when an interview with the former president aired on Life, Liberty & Levin.
The great thing about these shows is that, because Trump is talking to a sympathetic supporter, he sometimes seems to forget that the things he says will end up on the air, where not only his fans but also other people can watch them… like federal prosecutors who believe that coups should be illegal.
The former president seems to have a different take on the legality of them.
“Who ever heard, you get indicted for interfering in a presidential election where you have every right to do it, you get indicted and your poll numbers go up?” Trump said on the show.
Once you sift through the former president’s word salad, it seems pretty clear that he believes that he has the right to overturn the results of an election he lost.
Why would he say something so patently incorrect and ridiculous?
There are still some people who believe that Trump isn’t a complete idiot but rather says weird things because he is a master strategist.
If that is the case, it remains to be seen how effective it will be to go on TV and confess to the crime he is accused of having committed (in two jurisdictions).
Well, maybe Trump is really engaging in brilliant outside-the-box thinking that mere mortals simply cannot understand.
But the prevailing sentiment seems to be that he is just a moron.
Take Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), whom you can count among those who don’t buy into the “Trump is playing 4D chess” narrative.
“Dear Donald Trump: Are you seriously this stupid?” he tweeted. “You think President Biden has the right to interfere in the upcoming election? Do you want VP Harris to do what you tried to get former VP Mike Pence to do? Are you really this dumb? Also, interfering in elections is illegal.”
The lawmaker raises some interesting questions.
In order, the answers are probably “Yes, No, No, Yes.”
It stands to reason that special counsel Jack Smith, who recently filed a superseding indictment in Trump’s criminal coup case, will have watched the interview with great interest.
The indictment, which was returned by a new grand jury, tries to accommodate a Supreme Court ruling from this year that grants presidents broad immunity for “official acts.” In this case, “presidents” means “Donald Trump,” who is the first commander-in-chief to be indicted and then convicted.
As a result of that ruling Smith dropped some specific allegations but kept the same four charges in place.
While the superseding indictment, which you can read here, contains ample evidence of Trump’s plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Smith probably won’t mind if the former president keeps going on TV to talk about the case.
