MSNBC guest: Supreme Court immunity decision validated Nixon's claim that “when the president does it, it is not illegal"
Jeh Johnson: “When Nixon said to David Frost in 1977 in an unguarded moment, ‘when the president does it, it is not illegal,' we were all shocked... turns out, five justices of the of the current Supreme Court agree with that.”
Published
Citation From the July 2, 2024, edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe
JEH JOHNSON (FMR. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY): I took Constitutional Law 45 years ago. And I think I must have missed the lesson where my teacher said there's this provision in the Constitution that says presidents have criminal immunity from criminal liability. This, the framers of the Constitution knew how to write immunity into the Constitution. The speech and debate clause, which gives immunity to legislators for things that they say, no such provision exists for the president. If this doctrine has existed all along for the last 235 years, then Ford didn't need to pardon Nixon. And when Nixon said to David Frost in 1977 in an unguarded moment, 'when the president does it, it is not illegal,' we were all shocked, we were appalled, it was an extreme statement. Turns out, five justices of the current Supreme Court agree with that.
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It is only because now, 235 years in, that we have a past and possibly future president who engages in criminal conduct, that we have to have this debate. And at least five justices on the Supreme Court feel the need to try to protect him. This is, to me, an unbelievable decision and in my view, it's a setback to our constitutional order.