The Excerpt podcast: Court rules Donald Trump isn't immune to charges to overturn election

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Timing is key as the Supreme Court faces a likely Trump immunity appeal. USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi has the latest. Nikki Haley loses the Nevada primary to 'none' of the above. The House rejects a push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Jennifer Crumbley has become the first parent in the United States to be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for a mass shooting committed by her teenage son. Listen to a special episode of The Excerpt, discussing how the trial could change how parents manage children's mental health. ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery are forming a joint streaming service. USA TODAY Ad Meter Editor Rick Suter discusses this year's Super Bowl commercials. Rate the ads here!

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Wednesday, February 7th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, how Trump's immunity argument fell flat in appeals court. Plus, we have the results from Nevada's primaries, and we look ahead to this year's Super Bowl commercials.

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Former President Donald Trump's claims of presidential immunity in his federal election interference case were rejected yesterday by a DC appeals court. The decision sets the stage for another potential showdown at the Supreme Court. I spoke with USA Today Justice Department correspondent, Aysha Bagchi, for more. Hello, Aysha.

Aysha Bagchi:

Hi, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So Aysha, let's start here. What happened in DC appeals court yesterday surrounding former President Donald Trump's claims of presidential immunity?

Aysha Bagchi:

The DC Federal Appeals Court issued a ruling saying Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution in his federal election interference case by virtue of the fact that he was president. So this is an issue that has kept his federal election interference case on hold in case the trial could impact people's votes or what happens to former President Trump before the election. It's been on hold, finally, this appeals court issued a ruling and now the question is what will the Supreme Court do with it?

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, I want to get to the Supreme Court here in a second, Aysha. But first, did we hear any response from Trump? I know he has a habit of speaking out after these decisions.

Aysha Bagchi:

Yes. Donald Trump was very outspoken on social media. He said that it's important that the president have immunity in order to make the president feel comfortable making decisions from office. He complained about the decision and his spokesperson also said that they are going to appeal.

Taylor Wilson:

So Trump now has a few days to ask the Supreme Court to keep the case on hold. Is he expected to make that request? And what might the high court's decision look like?

Aysha Bagchi:

This is where things get a little dicey or uncertain about what's going to happen next. The ruling gives Trump until Monday to file, basically, an appeal at the Supreme Court asking to keep the trial on hold. Right now, the trial had originally been set for March 4th and that date has been kicked from the books. But he needs to go to the Supreme Court to try to keep that hold in place and create a delay. And then it's going to be up to the Supreme Court how it wants to handle the issue. It could decide to just stick with the appellate ruling that we just got and say, "Okay, we're going to let that stand in place," in which case the trial court can get things back on track, or the Supreme Court could decide it wants to hear the case. And if it decides it wants to hear the case, its decisions about the timeline on doing that will have a lot of sway over whether this trial can go forward before the election.

So ultimately, the pace of how the Supreme Court moves forward might be just as important as what it ultimately says about whether President Trump has immunity for things he did while in office.

Taylor Wilson:

So this appeal deals with Trump's federal election interference case, but it could have broader ramifications for how he uses this immunity argument. Where else might Trump plan to raise this presidential immunity defense and what impact might this appeal have there?

Aysha Bagchi:

Donald Trump is facing not only federal charges for alleged unlawful interference in the 2020 election, but also state charges down in Georgia. There hasn't been a trial set in that case yet, but Trump's lawyer down there has indicated that the team plans to raise a presidential immunity argument in that case as well. And that case is a bit unique because it's not under the US Justice Department. There's no question that Trump could become president again and then order the Justice Department not to prosecute the case. There's no question about whether he or some other Republican presidential candidate could pardon him in that case. So it's really unique and important to him in a different way. His lawyers indicated that they plan to raise the same argument there. There could be some different sides to how that argument goes in the state case because you're dealing with some state election law issues, not just federal ones. But it's an argument that could have broad effects on the two cases that raise really serious allegations tied to the 2020 presidential election.

Taylor Wilson:

Aysha Bagchi covers the Justice Department for USA Today. Thank you, Aysha.

Aysha Bagchi:

Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

Former South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley, lost the Nevada GOP presidential primary yesterday to the choice titled, "none of these candidates." The loss is largely meaningless. Former President Donald Trump decided to skip the Nevada presidential preference primary and instead is expected to win the GOP run caucuses tomorrow night. Still, it's a symbolic hit for Haley, who came in third in Iowa and second in New Hampshire. In Nevada, Haley had grabbed nearly 31% of the vote as of early this morning, while the choice for none claimed nearly 63%.

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden faced no serious opposition on the ballot. He claimed more than 89% of the vote while the option for none of the candidates got nearly 6%. And author Marianne Williamson received around 3%. You could find full results and more on usatoday.com.

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The House yesterday rejected a GOP push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The vote failed by a narrow 216 to 214 vote with no Democrats supporting the move and a handful of Republicans joining them. The move is broadly a blow to Republicans trying to make immigration and the border a top issue for 2024 elections. House Republicans voted on two articles of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of a refusal to comply with the law and a breach of public trust. Many GOP lawmakers have argued that Mayorkas has intentionally allowed a crisis at the border to continue. But Democrats, a small number of House Republicans, and legal experts across the political spectrum, have long dismissed Republican's impeachment push. They say the GOP's grievances with Mayorkas amount to policy disagreements over how to handle the border and the immigration system, and that impeaching him would set a dangerous precedent for future impeachments.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden yesterday blasted hard line Republicans and Donald Trump for blocking legislation that would give him the authority to quickly expel migrants who enter the country illegally, while also funding military operations by Ukraine and Israel.

President Joe Biden:

Now all indications are this bill won't even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason, Donald Trump, he'd rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.

Taylor Wilson:

With the $118 billion bill flaming out in Congress, Biden used the bully pulpit to scold political opponents for using growing tensions around the border against him in the presidential election, instead of working with Democrats. Even before the bill text was released, the legislation began to fall apart after Trump came out forcefully against it. You could read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Jennifer Crumbley has become the first parent in the United States to be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for a mass shooting committed by her teenage son. She was convicted yesterday of four counts of manslaughter for her role in the 2021 shooting when her son opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan, killing four classmates and injuring seven others. Involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and Crumbley is set to be sentenced in April.

Prosecutors argued that she knew her son, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was struggling with alarming mental health issues. They said that instead of getting him the help he needed, Jennifer, and her husband James, bought their son the gun used in the attack and attempted to flee when it became likely they would be charged. James Crumbley faces the same charges as his wife and is set to go on trial in March. Jennifer Crumbley took the stand in her own defense last week and said she never foresaw her son's deadly actions. Legal experts say the trial and guilty verdict could have sweeping implications for how society and the legal system view parents' responsibility when their children access guns and use them in mass shootings. For more on how Jennifer Crumbley's trial could change how parents manage children's mental health, be sure to check out yesterday's special episode of The Excerpt. We have a link in today's show notes.

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In a major move for streaming television, three of the largest media companies are teaming up. Disney's ESPN, Fox's Fox Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT, TBS and other networks, will offer a package this fall that features sports across football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Each company will own a third of the service. It doesn't yet have a name, pricing information, or a specific launch date, but it's the latest acknowledgement of the splintering of the cable bundle as more consumers shift to streaming. In recent years, sports have led other live programming as a key to preserving the cable television ecosystem, which has lost more than a quarter of its subscriber base over the last few years.

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The Super Bowl is Sunday and whether or not you care about the big game itself, you might still tune in for the commercials. That's where USA Today's Ad Meter comes in, running this year for the 36th time. I spoke with USA Today Ad Meter editor, Rick Suter, to learn more. Rick, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Rick Suter:

Of course, thank you for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Rick, let's just start here for folks who maybe are not aware. What is USA Today's Ad Meter and how did this originally get started?

Rick Suter:

Yeah, so USA Today Ad Meter began back in 1989. It sort of grew from that kind of progression of, these Super Bowl commercials started to take on their own voice to almost where they were becoming bigger than the game. And moving through the '80s with the Apple commercial and these sort of iconic things, as costs went up, USA Today took the opportunity to start to gauge consumer opinion about these things with millions of eyeballs on them. So it started as a very simple sort of survey and kind of grew from there, where now it's this kind of massive thing that's been open to the audiences across USA. You can go in and vote, it's digital, and now you're looking at thousands of panelists that are across the map.

Taylor Wilson:

And Rick, shifting to this year's big game, how much does it cost to buy space for a Super Bowl ad this year? Folks are always curious about this. And also, who are some of the big players or spenders for ad space this time around?

Rick Suter:

So that's always the number one question. It's how much do these cost? Right now, a 32nd block of the national airtime between the kickoff and the fourth quarter, two minute warning, it's about $7 million. But to put that in perspective, in 1967 when the first Super Bowl happened, it was around $37,500 for 30 seconds. So we've definitely seen some growth there. When Ad Meter started, it was around 650, $675,000.

As far as who's coming in, you're seeing some of the perennials back in it. Anheuser-Busch with Bud Light, Budweiser, big car brands like BMW's back in it. PepsiCo, which has got your Mountain Dews, and different Doritos is back in it. And you're also seeing some first time brands, some nostalgic ones for people out there, Nerds, Drumstick is in it this year. Reese's is back. So you're seeing a nice little mix.

Taylor Wilson:

And Rick, we're used to seeing celebrities on Super Bowl Sunday, not just on the field but in the stands and the commercials as well. Who can we expect to see on Sunday in the commercials?

Rick Suter:

You're going to see some big ones this year. It keeps growing as far as celebrity. One of them will be a battle of a father-in-law versus a son-in-law, you have Chris Pratt in the Pringles ad, you're going to have Arnold Schwarzenegger in the State Farm ad. So it's right there, you have this blockbuster sort of just pow coming at you in a break in the action. Kate McKinnon is in one this year, Aubrey Plaza. Christopher Walken is in the BMW ad. The list goes on. Jenna Ortega is going to be in an ad this year. It's really a pretty impressive list of just A-list celebrities that are really kind of pulling people's interest.

Taylor Wilson:

And so turning back to the Ad Meter itself, Rick, how can people get involved with the Ad Meter, starting today?

Rick Suter:

So you can go to admeter.usatoday.com and register. It's real simple. The ratings will go live at noon Eastern. It's a real simple feed. It's a 1 through 10 system. You'll get to watch the ads. Today, there will be 20 ads in that ballpark that are going to go live and even more to come as the trend kind of continues now, where once the game starts, there's really not that many ads that have been sort of kept secret at this point. There'll be probably close to 50 or 60 ads, admeter.usatoday.com.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Rick Suter, USA Today Ad Meter editor joining us here on The Excerpt. Thank you, Rick.

Rick Suter:

Welcome. Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

And be sure to stay tuned to The Excerpt this afternoon at 4:00 PM Eastern Time, when my colleague Dana Taylor will be joined by Life and Entertainment managing editor, Laura Trujillo, to discuss Tracy Chapman's performance at the Grammys with Luke Combs, and why it's resonating with so many people. You can find the episode right here on this feed.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson. Back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Court rules Donald Trump isn't immune to charges to overturn election