Trumps community case. This is a momentous Decision Just to hear this case. Tonight, rachel and Lawrence Odonnell on the Supreme Court with their delayed decision and what it means for justice. Lisa rubin and kristi on how we got here. The new political reality for an electorate that has stopped trump before. All in starts now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. The right wing dominated the Supreme Court and gave donald trump a gift. The biggest possible gift anyone could give him. The biggest possible gift they have given him yet. Trump in violent coup to overthrow democracy. He rallied a Supporter System to destroy the capital and he was indicted by our justice department, representative of us, the people, on four federal Felony Counts by a grand jury for his role in the insurrection. Today, in a single document, the court agreed to consider trumps claim that he is immune from prosecution for the january 6th insurrection, because he was acting in some sense of his official capacity as president. The order itself is not the story. It is the timing. It all comes back to the timing. Lets remember that the court case and trial that donald trump over his effort to subvert the Constitutional Republic was originally set to begin days from now in march. All of that is on hold, because the Supreme Court wants to hear Oral Arguments for his immunity claims. Are you ready for this . Seven weeks from now, april 22nd, 2024 and making it a real possibility and a likelihood, in fact, that donald trump will not face a trial for the crime of attempting to overthrow the American Republic will not face a jury of his peers until after the next election in which he is the likely republican candidate. I want to be Crystal Clear about the important significance in todays news, because a lot of reporting has missed this. What happened today, this one page order looks anodyne, right . It is an unmistakable sign from the majority of the trump created court that they are with him. They are going to use their power to make sure that he does not face trial in an Election Year two and American Democracy. Until today, it could have gone either way. It was unclear whether they were going to give him what they wanted and whether they were going to put his shoulder to the wheel on Donald Trumps behalf. Everyone is always understood. The substance of his legal claim is meritless. It lost in the District Court level. It lost unanimously the appellate court. Three judges and was one appointee. It was bad law under the Supreme Court on precedent. The point was to never win on the merits. The point was to make a time consuming hail mary past to attempt to escape accountability. Donald trump spent was that the 63 majority that he himself created on that court feel him out. They would rob the Peoples Department of justice the opportunity to present evidence. The voters of this country, you and i and the millions of us might be robbed of the information that we need to determine whether the man is guilty of the crime any politician has been accused of since the civil war. Today, the court signaled that they are in cahoots that the plot is on. It is a go. Yes, they will take the case. That is when they get to it. They have scheduled it seven weeks from now. Keep in mind how this works. Donald trumps legal team encouraging and participating in this delay tactic. Lets go back to december 1st , 89 days ago. Ruled on Donald Trumps focus immunity claim finding it meritless. Days later on december 11th, special Prosecutor Jack Smith anticipated that this claim was no more an attempt to delay and would fail the merits did something unusual and audacious. He went straight to the Supreme Court skimping an intermediate appellate level and said, lets be clear. You know what i know. Whats going on . Hes trying to delay and this is likely to land in one. Lets do it now and get to the merits. The Public Interest in the case is coming to the trial to be preserved and the court said, no. Just before christmas. People said at the time, maybe that makes sense, becomes because maybe they dont want to get the case because it is so clearcut. What happened quick syndicates they took a while. The clock was ticking the whole time. As a shed on the show over and over, they had a unanimous decision against trump. He is a citizen and not above the law. The decision seemed carefully tailored to give the Supreme Court an easy choice disabilities to take up the case and to let the lower court ruled in standford if the Supreme Court wanted to take up the case and the conservative majority of the court is what we are talking about here. They could have done it the day after they got the petition this month. That day, what did they do . They burned 2. 5 weeks for no reason and word producing any paper or writing any argument. It is one page. There it is. They sat around for two weeks, then they issued onepage order today saying that they were going to take this up and schedule argument for seven weeks from now. That is considerably longer than the expedited review of the 14th Amendment Case against in colorado. The one where he is challenging his right to be on the ballot. In that case where what over everyone was trinity not being on the ballot. The Supreme Court wanted to expedite quickly. Write . They wanted to get that one done. That ruling is going to come up before call his primary next tuesday and they moved quickly. Here, what the maga majority is telling us with this audacious order today is that the fix is in. In some ways for what it represents about the court, i think it is 100 times worse. It doesnt matter what they rule in merit, but they all know that and Everybody Knows the score. No one should be in any illusion that any player in this drama is confused about what is happening and has happened. Delay is all that matters. The patient is all that matters. No one needs to wonder whether this rightwing court Will Audaciously and in front of the whole nation use power to run the clock out. That is so faces no legal account ability and that his guilt or innocence cannot be definitively proven to us, the voters. I believe, we have a right to know whether hes guilty or innocent, so that he can return to power without us having knowledge and dismiss the cases from his position and as i quote him here, dictator on day one. If you were hoping that Donald Trumps authoritarian disregard for the rule of law was going to be stopped by american institutions and the court at the highest level, that hope is severely diminished today. The modern investigation didnt stop him. Criminal prosecutions are not going to stop. Supreme court that he helped stack will not stop. Today is the starkest proof yet that in the battle between maga and democracy was and is only one thing that could ever truly stop donald trump, which is we the people. Americans voting against him and the majority working for what he stands for what he wants to do. With me, my good friend who host the rachel show right here on msnbc. Rachel, i will say something. I am mad at myself for how surprised i was. I was mad at myself as the time clicked and went by, i and a lot of people thought with the informed speculation and people on the court and around the court and studied the court and know the court that there is no way that they could take 2. 5 weeks only to say that they will take the case seven weeks from now. What was your reaction . I dont think you should be mad at yourself or embarrassed. Everybody thought that was the only decent explanation for how long they were taking and that they were going to take up the case and maybe samuel or any of the other real judges was going to be really mad about it and have an angry dissent and for as much time as he could, because it was his last chance to insert delay, which is what wants. If you think about the court as the Supreme Court of the u. S. And rational actor and decent one, that was a reasonable supposition and it turns out that they are not that. I feel you in terms of the motion you are bringing to this. The sort of sense of urgency with which you are underscoring with this. It is true. There just isnt any way around it and i feel like for people who havent been following this and if you are wondering why there is a hair on fire and you havent been following any incremental bit of progress here , the important question here is not whether the Supreme Court is going to decide that donald trump and all president s are immune from prosecution for things that they committed while they were president. It would be fully insane for them to side with trump. This is the case where trumps lawyer was asked by judge florence in the appeals court, are you telling me that a president could order the assassination of his political rivals . There could be no prosecution for that . That would be okay . Not only for the duration of his presidency, but the duration of his life . That would be okay . Terms lawyers are like, yeah. They will side with him on immunity and it is unthinkable and besides the point. The conclusion that we can write that now without having to wait for the rolling is that they are ensuring that trump will not face trial and that one when they inevitably role that president s are immune, what that will child donald trump if by then he is president is that he can never leave the office of the presidency. If he is voted out in 2028, he cannot leave office and he is willing he is welcome to commit any crimes as long as he is still president in order to ignore the result of the election and stay in power for life, because otherwise he will go to prison when he gets out. That is the way this is going to, unless the country votes for President Biden and against donald trump in november. That point about the Incentive Structure produced by this is something i havent even thought about, but its very clearly correct. The point that rachel made, which is interesting. I talked to people today and watched the reaction. Just the courts hope that the kind of anodyne procedural nature means that what they are doing is illegible. They could do this and the news alert is like, the court will take up immunity. That sounds reasonable. I wonder if they can do it in april. That is part of the play. They are insulated. I hate to break the mood. Recommended. My hair isnt even warm. Im on fire. The most important thing that you said in your opening remarks is that this should not be up to five members of the u. S. Supreme court. It is really up to you, the voter, which is a version of what rachel was saying. These four votes, because this piece of paper and all you need are four in the Supreme Court. These four can be proven less important by the American People in a way that they cast their votes. I personally believe having seen how well President Biden did in michigan and how badly trinity did in michigan and other states that President Biden will be reelected, which is why i am not worried at all about the timetable. We have to remind the viewers that the reason everyone is worried about the timetable is because they are worried that trinity becomes president on january 20th, then on the 21st, he kills both federal cases. Lets also remember, which has just been talking about the federal case. Donald trump will go to trial in new york city On March 25th on an election interference case for his first president ial election. The star witness will be a star who has a testimony that will be very well understood and in fact we were clearly understood then maybe most of the testimony in jack smiths case. Those things will happen. Lets talk about how each side won some in this decision. These things are always one page. I will be horrified by that. The only question they will entertain is whether and to what extent does a former president and or president ial entity from president ial prosecution to involve official acts during his tenure in office . That is the only question you are allowed to talk about. They just throughout half of Donald Trumps appeal, which was the double jeopardy. He threw it out. They threw it out right on the single piece of paper, so they are losing already. Jack smith won, because jack smith said, i want to go to the Supreme Court. They werent asking pretty trumps lawyers were asking to send this case back to the 11th circuit, which is what they were asking for. They could have delayed it more than an extra month. I dont disagree with you. On this channel of, is this do or die because it he doesnt go to trial . First day of the appeal. If you find him guilty, he will go out to the courthouse and say, im appealing. He will be standing on the steps sometime in april doing the same thing and maybe even before the Supreme Court. He will be seen, i will appeal. My reaction to it isnt about the implications for what it means for the electoral chances, but it is a level of craziness from the court. They are moving at this pace and i find it deeply unnerving. Think about the court. They move fast when they want to, but move slow when they move slow. The court that filed against nixon this court as fast for them, but i do agree that this is the most isolated court in the history of the court, so they think that this will appear to be faster you just mentioned the nixon court ratio, which spent a lot of time on that period. My wife who has forgotten more about law than i ever know and i basically cheat off of everything. She pointed out to me today that in 1974, it is nixon where the Court Arguments in the issue of picking three weeks later and her point about that was, that is the most similar case we have had in history. It is nixon. In terms of the actual opinion, they moved quickly and unanimously. The other big if we are going to carry forward, when you talk about the court. The creaminess of the court is evident in what they are doing with the pacing. Putting this off for seven weeks and sitting on it for two weeks for no reason. Obviously, pushing all of the cases that they can push to a point where trump will be standing for election before any of us have heard the fedex. Got it. It is the timing. It is the idea that the Immunity Thing is an open question. Is president ial immunity and open question . What is the most famous pardon in American History . Gerrard for pardoning Richard Nixon once he was resigned and a former president. Why did gerald ford pardon him . As a result, occurring before his resignation as president of the meeting as a result of stuff he did while president , quote, Richard Nixon has become liable to possible indictment in trial and whether or not he shall be prosecuted depends on findings of the appropriate grand jury and discussion of the authorized prosecutor. The idea that this is an open question and it might be that a former president can never be tried for something that he did because he was president when he did it is disproven by a plain reading of American History and the whole justification for Richard Nixon being pardoned in the first place. The idea that it has to be taken up is them saying that the sky is green. I think even for the nonlawyers among us to be able to say, this guy is not green even on our worst day. This is bs and you are doing this as a tactic to help for political friend partisan patron. For you to say that this is something the court needs to decide, because it is unclear in the law is fragrant and they know it and dont care that we know it. That is disturbing about the future legitimacy of the court. Can you stay with me for one more block . Great. We have a lot more to unpack here on the farreaching implication of todays Supreme Court order. We will be back after this. Dont go anywhere. Their experts replaced my windshield and recalibrated my cars advanced safety system. Acoustic rock music woman safelite is the one i trust. They focus on safety so i can focus on this view. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Were building a better Postal Service. All parts working in sync to move your business forward. For more value. More reliability. And more ontime deliveries. The United StatesPostal Service crime is reportedly on the built for how you business. Decline in San Francisco. We are seeing progress in San Francisco. But there is more we must do to address crime and public drug use. Law enforcement needs 21st century tools to be more effective in preventing and solving crimes. Allow Public Safety cameras to discourage crime, catch criminals and increase prosecutions. And End Excessive paperwork to move officers back to the streets. Lets keep San Francisco moving in the right direction. Yes on prop e. Back with me, rachel and Lawrence Odonn