Conservative attorney and political commentator Jonathan Turley spoke out against MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow’s negative comments about the Supreme Court’s decision to hear Donald Trump’s “presidential immunity” claims.
“This is why you have such anger,” Turley said during an appearance on Fox News on Friday. “This is why people go to the homes of justices. This is what they hear in this echo chamber, that the court is bunch of robotic, bipartisan hacks. You’ve had law school deans refer to them as hacks.”
His remarks were in response to Maddow saying that she believes SCOTUS’ move to listen to Trump explain why he shouldn’t be held accountable for his involvement in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election is complete “B.S.”
“People hear about that, but they don’t hear the truth that the Supreme Court has ruled against Donald Trump, against conservatives’ causes regularly, including the conservatives on the court,” Turley said. “You had one person yesterday say, ‘Well, this just shows the court is part of the insurrection, and the insurrection is ongoing.’ That type of rhetoric is what’s fueling the rage in this country.”
He continued, saying there are issues surrounding what should result in legal punishment for a president who is accused of criminal behavior that need to be discussed.
“The court accepted this for review,” Turley said. “There are issues here, it’s a longstanding debate. I think that Trump is at a disadvantage on the merits, but some of the justices may have serious questions of where to draw this line to tell future presidents when they are not protected, so this rhetoric is dangerous and it’s wrong.”
Maddow slammed the Supreme Court on Wednesday, claiming the GOP-majority SCOTUS was merely caping for Trump.
“This is B.S. You are doing this as a dilatory tactic to help your political friend, your partisan patron,” Maddow said at the time. “And for you to say that this is something the court needs to do decide because this is something that’s unclear in the law if just flagrant, flagrant bull-pucky, and they know it, and they don’t care that we know it. That’s disturbing about the future legitimacy of the court.”
The court is set to hear Trump’s arguments about whether he should be prosecuted for his election interference in April.
