“For all practical purposes, today’s decision certainly means that there are no limits to what the president can do,” Biden said in a speech at the White House.
“This is a fundamentally new doctrine, and it sets a dangerous precedent,” Joe Biden said in a speech at the White House.
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden warned Monday that the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity sets a “dangerous precedent” that Donald Trump would take advantage of if he is elected in November.
“For all practical purposes, today’s decision certainly means that there are no limits to what the president can do,” Biden said in a speech at the White House.
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“The American people will have to decide whether they want to once again hand the presidency to Donald Trump, who they now know will be even more emboldened to do whatever he wants, when he wants,” he added.
:Biden issues warning about presidency and Trump’s power after Supreme Court immunity ruling:
Washington
CNN
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President Joe Biden on Monday denounced the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution for essential official actions, and issued a stern warning about former President Donald Trump’s potential second term.
“There are no kings in America. Every one of us is equal before the law. No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Biden said in a speech from the White House.
“With today’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, that has fundamentally changed. For all practical purposes, there are virtually no limits to what a president can do. “This is a fundamentally new doctrine and a dangerous precedent because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the United States Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines that Trump can claim immunity from criminal prosecution for some actions he took as president before leaving office, potentially delaying a federal election subversion trial related to his actions on Jan. 6 beyond that.
The decision overrules a ruling issued last February by a federal appeals court that concluded the former president did not enjoy immunity for alleged crimes committed during his presidency in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Biden has repeatedly warned that the extent of a president’s power now depends only on the office holder and the choices that person makes. He said Trump would be dangerous in this role.
The particularly political speech comes at a crucial moment for Biden’s campaign as he tries to dispel ongoing concerns about his age that were heightened by his performance in last week’s presidential debate. His inconsistent performance has raised concerns among some of his biggest donors and raised uncomfortable questions for Democrats about whether he should remain on their ticket, let alone spend the next four years in the White House.
During Monday’s speech, Biden appeared alert and actively read from a teleprompter in the White House’s Cross Room. But he took no questions and left immediately after his five-minute written statement.
Biden on Monday referred to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, calling it “one of the darkest days in American history.” He said the court’s ruling makes it unlikely that Trump will face trial on his criminal charges related to those riots before the election.
The court’s decision technically allows special counsel Jack Smith to pursue his case against Trump, but it leaves several technical questions unresolved — making it unlikely that a trial will begin before the November election. Smith’s case now returns to lower courts, which must review the specific steps Trump took to overturn the 2020 election results and whether those actions were formal, and thus entitled to immunity, or private, and thus not.
The majority said Trump’s interactions with the Justice Department — his efforts to try to convince officials he was trying to overturn the election — were within the scope of absolute immunity. As for other official actions and more routine powers held by the president, the court said there was at least some exemption and largely deferred to lower courts to sort it out. It’s a process that could take weeks or even months.
Perhaps most important, the majority made it clear that official acts could never be considered evidence in a potential trial, which could make it more difficult for Smith to win. Chief Justice John Roberts also wrote that lower courts cannot take into account the former president’s motives, which Trump’s lawyers may allow.
Biden said: “I know I will respect the limits on presidential powers that I have had for three and a half years, but any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law.”
Biden, who has made the defense of democracy a central tenet of his campaign, described the decision as a broad pattern of the Supreme Court undermining “a wide range of well-established legal principles,” pointing to other decisions on voting rights and civil rights. This clearly raised the stakes for the presidential election.
He said voters now have the final say in holding Trump accountable.
“The American people must decide whether they want to entrust the presidency to Donald Trump, whom they now know will be even more emboldened to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do so.”
He added: “I agree with Justice (Sonia) Sotomayor’s dissent today. Here’s what she said – “In every exercise of official power, the president is now king above the law,” he said. To the horror of our democracy, I disagree, end quote. And the American people must disagree as well. I disagree.
A source told CNN that the Supreme Court’s decision had an immediate impact, as Trump’s legal team filed a letter on Monday seeking to challenge the former president’s conviction in the New York criminal trial based on the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
