MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow found some curious lines in a new court filing by President Donald Trump’s legal team. And she and a guest on her show speculated that it could mean he’s trying to throw Vice President Mike Pence under the bus in an attempt to save himself from impeachment.
Maddow said a line in a court filing by the president’s attorney in his ongoing tax case in New York “sticks out for me like a beacon” for its seemingly random mention of the vice president.
“I was surprised to find that the President Trump’s lawyer, William Consovoy, really seemed to go out of his way to say that the immunity he was arguing for for President Trump explicitly does not apply to Mr. Pence,” Maddow said.
Maddow’s guest, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, said the line also struck her as strange, especially in light of Trump urging Congress to investigate Pence’s contacts with Ukraine.
“Makes one wonder whether he isn’t attempting to throw Mike Pence under the bus ― and why might he want to do that,” McQuade said.
Then McQuade came up with a theory: If Pence is out of the picture, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would be next in line for the presidency ― at least until a replacement was chosen ― and that would ensure that Republicans would not vote to convict Trump if he was impeached.
“Which makes it a very interesting gambit if they are trying to get Mike Pence impeached as an insurance policy for Donald Trump,” Maddow said.
See the full discussion above.