Former federal prosecutor and current Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy offered some strongly-worded legal advice for Fan-in-Chief Donald Trump if he wants to win any lawsuits related to the election.
McCarthy, also a member of the right-wing SCOTUS-picking The Federalist Society, appeared on Fox News today. In case anyone missed the point, FoxNews.com called the video, “Andrew McCarthy: Trump's 'rant' a 'legal blunder.'”
McCarthy appeared on Fox to amplify a column he wrote for National Review saying Trump should leave public statements about any litigation to his lawyers. “This is not a situation where he or the country will be well served by his penchant to wing it in an incendiary way,” McCarthy wrote in a quote anchor Trace Gallagher read on the air.
Any doubt Fox was deliberately sending a message to Trump should have been dispelled when Gallagher said, “Expand on that, if you would, for me, Andy.”
Indeed, he did.
MCCARTHY: The part of the election where you convince the electorate to vote for you is done. And all those votes are in a box and they’re being counted and it’ll come out however it comes out. To the extent that he wants to litigate what votes should count and which ones should be inspected and whether there’s been fraud, the audience now isn’t the electorate, it’s the court.
And in particular with the Supreme Court, you’re looking at a tribunal that, if we just take a step back, for the last three weeks, it has shown again and again that it doesn’t want anywhere near this election. It has really tried to resist getting involved in the Pennsylvania case.
So, I think for the president to say things that are provocative only strengthens the hand of the contingent on the court that doesn’t want any part of the case. And what has to happen now is, the court has to get a compelling legal argument that they need to take this case and straighten out what the rules are about which votes should count.
That’s a straight, calm, compelling legal argument. And turning up the heat politically does not help persuade the judges and actually probably does help the judges who don’t want to take the case. And remember, the Supreme Court does not have to take cases. It’s in charge of its own docket.
It’s worth emphasizing that McCarthy is clearly not against suing to stop vote counting or any of the other lawsuits that might keep Trump off the obvious glide path to losing. McCarthy just wants him to handle it better.
It's also important to note that this segment aired before Trump's bonkers rant designed to steal the election. Apparently, Trump did not heed McCarthy's advice.
You can watch it below, from the November 5, 2020 America’s Newsroom.