welcome to inside politics. i m manu roaju in for dana bash. is donald trump immune from actions he took in office. that crucial question now in the hands of three judges on the d.c. court of appeal. trump says he cannot be prosecuted for trying to overturn the election because they were, quote, official actions he took while president. moments ago, we heard from trump himself. i think it s very unfair when an opponent, a political opponent, is prosecuted by the doj by biden s doj, so they re losing in every poll. and they re losing in almost every demographic. numbers came out today that are really very mind boggling if you happen to be joe biden. and i think they feel this is the way they re going to try to win. that was outside the courtroom, inside the court, with his d.c. criminal trial looming, trump s lawyer and the special counsel s office made their cases in the high stakes hearing today. if a president has to look over his shoulder or her shoulder every time
americans who are worried about these issues. it is important read. it s a book that everyone needs to read as we talk about all the others. this is the thing that matters. it s very yellow. josh green, congratulations on publication day, my friend. thank you for the book. that is our show for tonight. now it is time for the last word, with lawrence o donnell. good evening, my friend lawrence. good evening, alex. we have professor andrew weissmann we have professor laurence tribe from , we have glenn kirschner who so valuable was in the room today. during this argument during which i think even donald trump knows the whole thing collapsed. the defense that could save him, the immunity defense, collapsed before his eyes. when you are arguing about navy seal commandoes being able to assassinate your political rivals, i think you are not winning. i am a lame person, i only went to tv law school, i can t wait to be taught somewhere in your hour, but by layman s opinion
liable for everything he did while he was in office. didn t get away with anything yet. we have a criminal justice system in this country. we have civil litigation. and former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one. even mitch mcconnell knew back in 2021 that trump can face criminal charges. well, now, trump s lawyer is making the absurd argument that a president can commit all kinds of heinous crimes and remain immune from prosecution forever. unless he s impeached and convicted. also tonight, trump s rhetoric is having dangerous consequences. as both special counsel jack smith and judge tanya chutkan are targets of swatting. and trump s big hope for 2024, he says he hopes the u.s. economy crashes some time soon. which of course, would leave huge numbers of his maga supporters jobless and broke. but we begin tonight with a hypothetical question. could a sitting president sell pardons or military secrets or order the navy seals to assassinate a
happening now and breaking news, doctors for defense secretary lloyd austin revealing that he has prostate cancer we have details on his condition and the surgery complications behind this controversial hospitalization. following a critical test for donald trump s claims of presidential immunity from prosecution. three federal judges hearing trump s argument and appearing deeply skeptical of the theory at this hour and we are breaking down all of the courtroom drama and what comes next for the case. as with can presidential candidates sprint towards the finish in iowa, we have a new poll on the race in new hampshire. is nikki haley closing the gap with front runner donald trump? welcome to our viewers here in the u.s. and around the world, i am trying to and you are in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. let s get to the breaking news. doctors for defense secretary lloyd austin revealing complications from prostate cancer surgery were the cause of his undis
the appeals court hearing on donald trump s immunity hearing has wrapped up. the three-judge appellant panel facing this big question can the former president be held criminally responsible for actions that he took while in office to overturn the 2020 election loss. we heard a remarkable argument from trump s team who heard the argument that prosecuting a former president would open up a pandora s box as john sauer said that working in the capacity as alleged in the indictment by jack smith, the special counsel s office pushing back on that. this notion that we are all of the sudden going to be seeing a floodgate, i think that, again, the careful investigations in the clinton era didn t result in any charges. the fact that this investigation did doesn t reflect that we are going to see a sea change of vindictive tit-for-tat prosecutions in the future. i think it reflects fundamentally unprecedented nature of the criminal charges here. cnn s evan perez joins us now. ev