The Washington Post’s “conservative” columnist has said some nutty things in the past, but this one takes the cake.
After special counsel Robert Mueller released new court filings from his investigation into allegations that President Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, Jennifer Rubin said the president is likely planning an 11th hour stunt to avoid going to jail.
“I would predict here on MSNBC that when Trump leaves office he will resign the presidency 10 minutes before Mike Pence leaves office, allowing Pence to pardon him if there is not a Republican president to follow him,” Rubin said on the network’s “AM Joy” show.
So, here’s the plan, according to Rubin. On January 20, 2021 (or, more likely, 2025), Trump will resign the presidency at 11:50 a.m. (the incoming president is sworn in at the capitol at noon.) Then, the vice president will be sworn in as president (he’d have to be), and whip out a presidential pardon, which he’d sign. At noon, poof, Pence is no longer president and Trump is in the clear.
Like we said, we’ve heard some dumb stuff before from Rubin, but nothing this dimwitted. Still, there’s no doubt the viewers of MSNBC gobbled it up, especially coming from a “conservative” columnist.
The Post describes Rubin — who it once was touted as a “conservative” author of the paper’s blog “Right Turn” — as an “opinion writer reporting from a center-right perspective.” But in her Twitter profile, Rubin still describes herself as a “conservative blogger at @WashingtonPost, MSNBC contributor.”
That description doesn’t go over too well with the American Principles Project, which last month sent a letter to the Post signed by 37 top conservative leaders to urge the paper to stop promoting Rubin as a “conservative” and to instead hire a columnist who could “eloquently and effectively” defend the policies of Trump and his party.
“We, of course, respect the right of The Washington Post to employ whatever writers it pleases — even Jennifer Rubin. However, we ask for the sake of intellectual honesty that the Post cease to identify her as in any way ‘conservative,'” the conservative leaders wrote. “Given the Post’s standing as an important platform for political opinion in our nation’s capital, we also respectfully request that you consider hiring a voice who can eloquently and effectively defend the positions held by our President, his party, and the millions of voters who elected him. We would be happy to provide recommendations.”
A look at her recent columns certainly reinforces that notion. A few headlines:
- Trump’s misogyny reaps diminishing returns
- If we want to protect the Supreme Court’s legitimacy, Kavanaugh should not be on it
- Trump has made America less respected than ever
- It just keeps getting worse for Republicans
- Ford runs circles around hapless Republicans, who now have a second scandal
In her MSNBC appearance, Rubin also ripped Sen. Rand Paul (R-TN), who said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “I don’t see what’s illegal about trying to build a hotel in Russia. This is pretty common and I see no problem with it. Now if you’re asking and saying I will give you something in exchange for letting us build a hotel, that would be wrong, but I haven’t heard any evidence of that.”
Rubin said Paul’s remarks were “shameful,” adding, “I think there was a $50 million penthouse, if I remember it correctly, that was going to be offered to Vladimir Putin.
“The president has been implicated in a crime. If Rand Paul wants to say Republicans are no longer in favor of holding the president to the same standard of law we hold ordinary citizens, that is his right. But I think this kind of willful ignorance … really is beneath someone who is in the United States Senate.”