This is quite possibly one of the most disgusting things I’ve read out of an establishment journalist in a long, long time:

And to pursue criminal charges against officials at the highest levels—including the former president and the former vice president—would set a terrible precedent. . . . That is not to say presidents and vice presidents are always above the law; there could be instances in which such a prosecution is appropriate, but based on what we know, this is not such a case.

That was Newsweek’s esteemed apologist moralist John Meacham. What he’s saying is that Presidents and Vice-Presidents are usually above the law, even though there may be some exceedingly rare instances in which they should be held to account (you know, like when a President receives a blowjob and then lies about it).

Glenn Greenwald sums it up thusly:

Presidents and Vice Presidents aren’t “always above the law” — just most of the time. It’s possible to imagine some extreme hypothetical case where it might be reasonable to want to impose accountability when the President commits crimes, but such a case is so unthinkably rare — so theoretical — that it’s not even worth describing what that situation might be. That’s the only view that can be heard on Meet the Press — the masses must understand that it’s wrong to treat Presidents the same way that ordinary citizens are treated when they break the law — and Meacham was on yesterday with David Gregory to deliver that very message without challenge, the second consecutive week that show presented a unanimous panel endorsing presidential immunity for lawbreaking.

To think that we have come from the visionary men who founded our republic those many centuries ago to a leading American journalist making the explicit argument that the highest executives in the land are usually above the law is horrifying.

If we don’t pull ourselves back from the precipice of entitled establishmentarian plutocracy we now find ourselves teetering over, I fear that we may not be able to hang on all that much longer.