The Washington Post's token "conservative," Jennifer Rubin, appeared on MSNBC's "AM Joy with Joy Reid" to discuss the Mueller probe. Rubin made a rather interesting prediction: she believes the Department of Justice will indict President Donald Trump. And, in her mind, Trump could make a drastic move to protect himself from potential legal trouble.
“I would predict here on MSNBC that when Trump leaves office he will resign the presidency ten 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 show.
.@JRubinBlogger: I would predict here on MSNBC that when #Trump leaves office he will resign the presidency ten minutes before Mike Pence leaves office allowing Pence to pardon him if there is not a Republican president to follow him. #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/eJ6c1WsOPF
— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) December 9, 2018
First of all, where did WaPo find Rubin at? She's branded as their "conservative" columnist yet she writes some of the most asinine columns with a liberal bent to them. Just last week she used President George H.W.'s death to chide Republicans and the NRA. Not really something a conservative would really do. But hey, that litmus test varies from person to person.
Second, there are a lot of assumptions being made on her part.
She's assuming that Mueller has something on Trump and the DOJ will indict him. She's also assuming that, if those first two things do happen, that Trump would come up with a scheme to get himself out of legal trouble.
Let's just assume that Mueller does have something worthy of an indictment and Trump comes up with a scheme, like Rubin suggests. There are so may problems with that scenario.
1. Vice President Mike Pence's swearing in would take longer than 10 minutes. By the time he's sworn in, it'd be time for the next president to come onboard. 10 minutes is very unrealistic.
2. What makes Rubin think that Pence would agree to go along with the scheme? What would he get out of that? It would be political suicide for him to get involved in that saga. Not to mention that would tarnish his legacy.
3. What if Pence is, for some reason, no longer Vice President (assuming Trump runs again in 2020 and decides a different running mate)? Would the same prediction hold true but with a different VP?
There are waaayyyy too many variables to make this kind of prediction. And, not only that, but it sounds far-fetched.