Donald Trump is not taking it well that Andrew Napolitano, chief judicial analyst on Trump’s favorite network is saying straight up that Trump obstructed justice and making it very clear that he should be impeached. Oh, the hardship of having only all of Fox News prime time and your favorite morning show singing your praises!
In an online commentary accompanied by a video from his webcast, Napolitano did not pull any punches about Trump’s culpability and even criminality. Napolitano wrote (with my emphases added):
The Constitution prescribes treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors as the sole bases for impeachment. We know that obstruction of justice constitutes an impeachable offense under the "high crimes and misdemeanors" rubric because both presidents in the modern era who were subject to impeachment proceedings -- Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton -- were charged with obstructing justice.
[…]
Mueller laid out at least a half-dozen crimes of obstruction committed by Trump -- from asking former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland to write an untruthful letter about the reason for Flynn's chat with Kislyak, to asking Corey Lewandowski and then-former White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller and McGahn to lie about it, to firing Comey to impede the FBI's investigations, to dangling a pardon in front of Michael Cohen to stay silent, to ordering his aides to hide and delete records.
[…]
The president's job is to enforce federal law. If he had ordered its violation to save innocent life or preserve human freedom, he would have a moral defense. But ordering obstruction to save himself from the consequences of his own behavior is unlawful, defenseless and condemnable.
Those are tough words from anyone but they are particularly tough coming from the chief judicial analyst for Fox News. Of course, the prime time shows paid no heed. The Hannity show is still calling the investigation an “attempted coup.” Ditto for attorney and Trump suck-up Alan Dershowitz on The Ingraham Angle who also said he disagreed with Napolitano. (As usual, there were no inconvenient questions for Dershowitz about Jeffrey Epstein.)
The Tucker Carlson Tonight sbow ignored Napolitano’s comments on both April 24, the day of the webcast and April 25, the day his commentary was published. On April 25, guest host Tammy Bruce didn’t use the word "coup" but she hinted at one by suggesting that the FBI had improperly “monitored” Trump. At least she didn’t use the word “spying,”
I'm not sure what to make of Fox’s purpose in Napolitano's commentary. As I hope everyone realizes by now, Fox News is a political operation with some news functions. Napolitano’s commentary doesn’t just happen because the network is open to all opinions. If that were the case, Napolitano would have been booked on at least one prime time show to discuss his views and the others would have referenced them.
Was Fox trying to send a message to Trump and/or Republicans that he’s likely to be impeached? Hedging its bets in case there comes a time when pro-Trump propaganda is no longer a good business strategy? Or using Napolitano to boost its cred now so that it can say later the network was not totally in the tank for Trump? All of the above?
Whatever the reason, Napolitano’s comments went viral and caught the attention of the Crybaby in Chief.
Thank you to brilliant and highly respected attorney Alan Dershowitz for destroying the very dumb legal argument of “Judge” Andrew Napolitano....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2019
....Ever since Andrew came to my office to ask that I appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court, and I said NO, he has been very hostile! Also asked for pardon for his friend. A good “pal” of low ratings Shepard Smith.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2019
Watch Napolitano destroy Trump below, from the April 24, 2019 Judge Napolitano’s Chambers – and call a wahhhh-mbulance for Trump!
Has Napolitano had a chance to express this legal analysis inside the Fox News studios or is there are reason he’s doing it outside on the street? 🤔