attorney general may appoint a special counsel when he concludes that it would be in the public interest. that s exactly what merrick garland did here. he did it, i think, also because david weiss asked him to do it. i think he concluded for the same reasons he said even before appointed him as the special counsel, he made it clear, mr. weiss made it clear that he had the ability and authority to operate pretty independently of the department of justice. i think mr. garland recognizes the sensitive nature of investigating the son of a president. you re right, he s a private citizen. it s about conduct he took in his private capacity, although there are certainly allegations that he tried to capitalize on his father s you know possession in government to help him win these contracts. that s certainly something that s being discussed and alleged. this is real a one where the attorney general said it s in the public interest because we do not want to have any appearance of favoritism towa
2024 campaign season, the twice impeached thrice indicted former president, who still refuses to admit that he lost the 2020 election, is now also refusing to sign a pledge to support the republican nominee if it s not him. surprise. joining me now is creative director at thegrio, of the durational podcast as well as the new animated series, star stories, which is really amazing. and jamele bowie, new york times columnist and co-host of the unclear and present danger podcast. it seems like it doesn t even matter if he s gonna sign this pledge because i can t see him supporting those candidates anyway if it s not him is not gonna tell his maga followers to vote for that person anyway, right? i think that s right. that s pretty much what happened in 2016. he refused to commit to supporting any other nominee, refused to accept the results of the election if you lost. we know how that played out for years later. his whole power over the republican party, at first, was
that this could become a lawsuit. presenting a vital constitutional issue that potentially the supreme court would want to hear and decide. joining me now is laurence tribe, who has taught constitutional law at harvard law school for five decades. great to see you, professor tribe. i m officially obsessed with this scholarship by these federalist society judges that i don t normally say that. what s fascinating about it is what they re saying is that it is unquestionably fair to say that donald trump, this is what they re saying, engaged in the january 6th insurrection through both his actions and inaction. therefore, they say that under the 14th amendment s article three, he cannot be even in some cases added to the ballot to be president of the united states. and people can sue over that and make that claim. what do you make of their argument? well, i think that there s a great deal to be said for it. you don t have to be an originalist, somebody who thinks that the constitution s
this fear among republican officeholders or elites that if he did not stay on his good side and he wasn t the nominee that he would lose voters. i think he still retains some of that now. he s not gonna meet the pledge because he doesn t need to. if he is a nominee. he still retains power to say no, i don t support that person. and that s what republicans are afraid of. and we talked a little bit earlier in the show, to ray, donald trump s power is that he is a celebratory, and for a lot of his supporters there not his supporters, or his fans. some voted for obama. they re not republicans, hard-core, they re just there for him. he s wrapping this cult around himself because he doesn t want to go to prison. he doesn t care about politics of the republican party. i don t understand why republican, elected republicans are somehow thinking they can bring him into the fold and have him be a republican.
the president s son. excuse me. and until this week, mr. weiss had never asked for it. when he did ask for it, it would have been untenable at that point for the attorney general to say no. imagine what would have happened if he had said no. people on the hill are hollering right now about appointing david weiss somebody weeks ago they said should be appointed. so in other words, he s being treated differently because he s joe biden s son. i want to read this piece here. the particular gun charge that the feds brought against joe biden, this is from the daily beast, a drug user in possession of a firearm is rarely brought as a stand-alone crime. especially now that roughly a fifth of the country uses cannabis with a significant overlap with the nation s estimated 80 million gun owners, more than that, i think. when the feds bring this type of case, they come down hard, but it s usually a tool they use to bring down tough to commit