MSNBC legal analyst, Neal Katyal was just itching to get on air this morning after hearing forty minutes of his colleagues talking about today's Supreme Court rulings on Trump's tax returns.
finally getting on air, i disagree with much of what the reporters and analysts on @msnbc have said thus far.
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) July 9, 2020
Katyal has argued more cases in front of the Supreme Court than any other minority — EVER — and is one of the most respected legal minds in the nation. What had him so agitated?
It was so many of his colleagues on many networks, MSNBC included, arguing that the SCOTUS rulings were a "mixed bag" for Trump. That there were ways in which the decisions could be considered a good thing, or even a win. This, despite the fact that BOTH of Trump's appointed justices ruled against him!
When Ayman Mohyeldin set up the question about Brett Kavanaugh's having written, "In our system of government, as this court has often stated, no one is above the law. That principle applies with force to a president," Katyal got his chance to set the record straight about what these rulings meant for Trump.
The fact is he lost, he lost resoundingly, 7-2, including his own appointees to the court, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. The court by seven justices rejected his broad claims of immunity. For a president who is sworn to take care that the laws be faithfully executed in our constitution, the Supreme Court is saying these are bogus claims.
[...]
[N]obody thought he was going to win, that the House was going to win immediate release of the tax returns or anything like that. This is I think the best of what the challengers thought.
The only way in which Trump won anything today, is he now possibly can delay this after election day and delay getting all the information to New York, but I think that's doubtful. Look, these cases can move very quickly. The Nixon tapes case moved in a matter of three months. Bush vs Gore, the election dispute of 2000, 36 days. This is all about the election of 2020. I expect Cy Vance to move incredibly fast.
Pete described Trump as having little shield left in New York against Cy Vance. It's not a little shield. It's a paper-thin shield at best. I think it's totally possible for all of this to come out before the 2020 election in terms of New York's prosecutors getting this information and acting on it.
So I would caution all those folks who have been listening to this for the last half hour and say this is a mixed bag. It is not. If I'm Donald Trump, I'm scared right now. Whether or not it comes before or after the 2020 election, Cy Vance is going to get this material, and it looks pretty damaging to Donald Trump.
THANK YOU, Neal Katyal. I hate when pundits create false narratives for the purposes of creating or prolonging drama, or instilling anxiety into their audiences at the expense of honest and straight reporting. There is this compulsion on the part of the media to paint the Trump administration as all-powerful, as invincible, even if it means turn losses into wins. Is it the uglier cousin of Both-Siderism?
Respect our intelligence enough to give it to us straight. Be willing to stand up to the triggered reactions of the psycho 3%ers and mask-averse Trump-lovers, and to withstand the mockery of Tucker Carlson. Point your media finger in their faces and tell them, "YOU. LOST."
I'm just gonna take my cue from people like Neal Katyal and one of my other favorite legal minds, Elie Mystal.
Me: Hey, we won.
Twitter: But he doesn't have to release his taxes before November.
Me: Yeah, no, that was never gonna...
Twitter: TRUMP WINS AGAIN
Me: ...Ain't nothing gonna break-a my stride. Ain't nothing gonna hold me down, oh no, I've got to keep on moving.— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) July 9, 2020
