'Stay off Fifth Avenue!': Maddow explains why Trump's view of the presidency really would let him get away with murder

On Wednesday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow tore into the Trump administration's interpretation of congressional oversight law, arguing that if they are correct that Congress has no power to investigate the president, that essentially means the president is completely immune from liability for any federal laws.

"Remember when Trump said that during the campaign? I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I would get away with it," said Maddow. "The attorney general now asserts bluntly that the president cannot be criminally charged. The attorney general also asserts that if the president can't be criminally charged, then he can't be criminally investigated either. The attorney general also says that if the Justice Department is investigating the president and the president believes that's bad, the president believes that's wrong, that he's been wrongly accused, he definitely didn't do anything wrong, nobody should be looking at me, that's grounds enough for the president to end that investigation and fire the investigator."

"And now both the president's private lawyers and the White House counsel and the Justice Department, in defying the subpoenas, they are all arguing one way or another that Congress has no right to investigate the president for corruption or other crimes at all," Maddow continued. "So if you can't be charged, you can't be investigated. Anybody who does start investigating you, you can fire. And oh by the way, Congress can't investigate you either. I mean, you really could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone. I don't know what we the rest of the country are supposed to do with this new revelation about this view of the presidency. I guess stay off Fifth Avenue!"

"But also, look on the bright side," Maddow added. "If you have ever, ever personally had truly epic, truly wicked criminal ambitions for yourself, now you know what the job is for you. I mean, if you were so lucky as to get elected president, you could not only by definition not commit any crimes, you could not be charged, you could not be investigated."

"You'd be the freest criminal on Earth if you were lucky enough to be elected President of the United States," she said, "and if you had attorney general William Barr working for you."

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