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President Joe Biden is speaking out following a landmark Supreme Court decision that says former president Donald Trump may claim immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts done during his time in office.
Biden decried the decision in a speech on Monday and warned about its repercussions on our system of government, calling it “a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law.” Biden added that the decision made it “highly, highly unlikely” that Trump will stand trial for election interference before the next presidential election, which is “a terrible disservice to the people of this nation.” So now it’ll be up to the American people to “render a judgment on Donald Trump’s behavior” in November’s election, he noted. (Watch his speech via CBS News in the video above.)
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision stating that Trump may be immune from prosecution if his alleged crimes were committed in his official capacity as president. “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of presidential power requires that a former president have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute.”
Roberts did add that not all actions taken by a president are official, and “the President is not above the law.” But in a dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, she said the ruling “makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law… The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
The ruling throws into question several criminal trials that Trump is currently facing, including a federal indictment for election subversion stemming from his actions leading up to the January 6th riots in Washington, DC. That case is what led to the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday, with the Court rejecting a decision from a federal appeals court that found that Trump had no immunity for any alleged crimes he may have committed as president.
He should be all for it, otherwise he himself be next.
Remind me again which candidate is currently a convicted felon and is embroiled in numerous civil and criminal trials? Just checking.
The one that just got cleared by the Supreme Court🎉
Correction: the one who got his way after stacking the court to rule in his favor. Because that’s all Trump does, buy his way out of having to be held accountable for anything he does.
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But hey, feel free to make a list of all the criminal and civil trials Biden’s currently involved in. Go on. I’ll wait.
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Yeah you do know garland was never going to be appointed as hello the republicans controlled the senate and contrary to what democrats and the media tell you you only need a simple majority to be approved and oh same witt barret
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Then list his felonies. If he has committed more felonies than any president in history it should be easy.
Tell me what crimes and provide proof.
Trump will win his appeal of conviction in higher court. Do you see? Dem jurys, Dem judges, Dem prosecutors may convict trump but he will win in appeal.
That would be the political enemy of Pinocchio Joe. HE is the tyrant, not President Trump. All of these cases are phony baloney. They were brought to get rid of President Trump, but it backfired. People could see they were politically motivated and it just brought MORE support for President Trump
What he should do is take an official action to remove a threat to the state so that Trump can’t, and most of Congress, and well immune. Just like Trump argued could be done.
Please tell me, which crimes exactly has Biden committed that he needs immunity from? Feel free to go into whatever detail you think necessary to show that they are, indeed, actual crimes. Do note, however, that accusations are not evidence, so be sure to include actual evidence in your response.
So, hey, anyone who still wants to be all precious with their voite and “sit out” this election, or still believes the “both sides are equally bad” BS?
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Shut up. I do not want to hear it. Get out there and vote this November. You do not get the luxury of sitting this one out. We’re not doing 2016 nonsense again. Put on your big girl/boy pants, go vote, and vote blue from the president all the way down. The GOP has throoughly corrupted our system of government and they, and Trump, do not deserve to have any kind of political power.
So we should vote all blue because some random person on a tv website says we should? I guess that settles that
No, you should vote blue because the Democrats are the only party that actually cares about preserving our democracy and whose candidate didn’t try to overthrow an election because he didn’t like the results and isn’t a convicted felon. Hope that helps.
Actually it doesn’t. The people have the right to go out and vote for who they believe in or who they think has their best interests. Just because you are one sided does not mean everyone is
It has nothing to do with being one-sided and everything to do with not voting for the poitician/party that wants to destroy our democracy. If anyone thinks Trump and the GOP has people’s best interests at heart, they’re morons, plain and simple. That’s not bias, just basic facts. There is no excuse or justification for supporting people who want to destroy our democracy.
If not the “2016 nonsense” then definitely the 2020 nonsense where if trump loses he claims its rigged and half the people agree just because he says so.
No, half the people believe it because of what happened, not because of what President Trump says about it
From my understanding a future president can install a corrupt henchman as Attorney General, they together can plot to break any law they want. And it would be protected as immunity because it’s an official act!!! President could then pardon AG!
I really do think we’ve slowly started to see guardrails to protect the foundation of our democracy erode over the last few years. And now it’s happening quickly, falling like dominos.
We might be on the cusp of a stronghold of minority rule.
Not to be alarmist!
Except you ARE being alarmist. The SC ruling clearly states immunity for “core constitutional acts”, it doesn’t give the President the ability to simply declare everything he does an “official act”. Bribery is illegal, so Trump or Biden couldn’t legally accept bribes by declaring it an official act. People like AOC running around with their hair on fire are doing so because it is beneficial to them.
Bribery is no longer illegal if it is conducted under the auspices of an official act. Providing pardons is an official act. Can Trump now sell pardons for personal gain if he is elected? Yes he most likely can.
You’re wrong. You should try reading the actual decision.
Hopefully he is announcing he is removing Trump from the country as an official act!
Seriously, Biden should take every advantage of this ruling he can get. If the GOP throw a hissy fit, tough, they cleared the way for this ruling to happen. Biden can just say, “Supreme Court” and shut them up right there.
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I also trust this means we won’t see any further investigations by the GOP into any Democrats, up to and including Biden, because hey, anything they did in office that the GOP deems criminal is totally cool now according to this ruling. Right?
Our Supreme Court is no longer trustworthy nor guarding the population. Mr Trump can not be considered doing Presidential duties when publicly leading an Insurrection/Treson. Now everyone is in danger from a man who wishes to be a dictator. No Constiutional validity in this decision! Sold America Out!!
I really don’t understand all the hand-wringing and ridiculous hyperbole. It has always been taken on faith that a President’s official actions are protected from legal reprisal. This merely codifies it. If a President has to worry about the next administration coming after them for doing their job, they’re hamstrung. It’s the same reason we don’t charge members of the military when they kill in the line of duty.
Perfectly said – thank you!
You better go watch the Cavanaugh confirmation hearings where he explicitly says this is not the case. He should be impeached for lying to congress.
Kavanaugh
The handwringing would come from the second part of the ruling, where Roberts in his opinion says that no one who is investigating a President for criminal unofficial acts may use as evidence anything related to the Office of the President such as paperwork, testimony from Administration employees, or even public statements the President made so long as the statement was made as official business. Nor can an investigator question the reasoning or motive behind any act a President does. Thus making it all but impossible to investigate and bring to trial a President, former or sitting, when you cannot use any evidence against them. Thus, all a President need do is assert “this is an Official Act of the President” and no one can question or investigate the act, regardless of how criminal the action seems, or is.
No, actually, it hasn’t “always been taken on faith that a President’s official actions are protected from legal reprisal.” It’s always been taken on faith that no man is above the law, not even the President – and THAT’S what’s been thrown in the toilet and flushed down like a turd.
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A agree, a President shouldn’t have to “worry about the next administration coming after them for doing their job”, but that doesn’t mean they should get carte blanche to do whatever illegal s*** they feel like and just say “It’s an official act!” and get away with it.
Great common sense response, unfortunately for some Americans, they need to be told how to act and react. Nice to see a breath of fresh air for a change instead of extreme rhetoric. Kudos!!!
Trump will try to claim everything is an “official act” of his Presidency, from trying to block the election results and the peaceful transfer of power to the withholding of classified documents. But there is a difference between an act being reasonable under the purview of the Office of the President of the United States in the interests of the nation and its citizens, and an act being purely selfish because the President can’t accept defeat and doesn’t want to lose power and the protection of the Office. The prosecutions must move forward. Make him explain in detail on the record in court to a jury how any of these acts should be considered “Presidential.” This man should be fitted with an orange(r) jumpsuit, not a crown.
Just a question- Is it now the Presidents decision what is permissible and what is not. Sitting Presidents Constitutionally already had immunity from “normal” legal issues. Has the Supreme Court just handed Blanket Immunity- as determined by the sitting President? Can he or she now have someone eliminated and call it with their perview? If so the entire nation is at risk!!!
yes he can. that why people on both side are worried.
No. The President is still bound by what is Constitutional. Otherwise, Biden could simply “officially” cancel elections, declare himself King of the United States and name Hunter as his successor. There is lots of misunderstanding of what this ruling actually did.
No, the Supreme Court did NOT do that. Read the actual decision
I wonder what Mike Pence thinks about this. It seems that every day our once beloved country plummets further toward fascism. The American public has to see that Trump invited violence and possibly murder to his home and being the POTUS is especially heinous. TV and sensationalist announcers only exacerbate his behavior. He is wrong for the United States.
Totally B S! Trump need be sent to the Ukraine and see what life IS!
Well well Trump is not held accountable for his actions yet again. Instead of telling Biden to step away, the cheating, lying man who thinks he is above the law should step down. Trump you are a convicted felon.
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Dies thus mean he can over turn an election result because it is his is official duty to make sure the GOP wins since the election was “rigged” by Dems?
tRump is a criminal. The Supreme Court is compromised. We need some new blood like AOC to lead this country back to sanity!
You started off good with new blood and ended going off the rails with AOC.
AOC needs to be nowhere near politics. I wouldn’t even hire her to walk my dog and I don’t even have one.
I think she needs to be important in politics, just not such a big role for a couple presidential elections.
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Little whiners, that’s what the blue party does when things don’t go their way! So sad
Remind me again which side attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election by trying to 1) convince state politicians to “just find” the exact amount of votes needed to win; 2) convince the Vice President to refuse to certify the results; 3) install fake electors that would decide for him against the wishes of the populace; 4) incite a mob to attack the US Capitol in a fine example of domestic terrorism in an attempt to stop the certification?
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Once again, every accusation is a confession.
3 and 4 never were proven in court they had years and were not able to find solid proof he was personally planning for any of that he only was telling his supporters to protest the resolds never once he told them to do anything ilegal, 1 and 2 were because he felt that the election was stolen and that they use the paradimic to get more votes by mail in ballets and that was well within his rights to do so….
Except he didn’t believe the election was stolen. I mean, I’m sure he believed his own lies after he spewed them enough, but initially? Nope. He was running the “STOLLEN ELECTION” BS *months* before the actual election, and even his own hand-picked people were telling him “Yeah no you need to stop this because it isn’t true” after he lost.
In the 5 battleground states, they stopped counting and in the middle of the night, thousands of ballots for BIden showed up. In every case, Biden won with a slim but decisive margin. Also, Republican poll watchers were kept out of vote counting or kept so far away that they couldn’t see what was going on. Also, ballot stuffing in drop off boxes and mail in ballots where they weren’t allowed by law. They got away with it, though.
The legislatures in at least some of these states wanted time to investigate possible voter fraud. What President Trump wanted Pence to do whas to send the electors back to those states and give them 10 days to decide what to do.
And President Trump didn’t incite anyone to do anything. The people that broke into the Capitol did so before he finished his speech and it was a 30 minute wald from the site of the speech to the Capitol. By the time the people at the speech got there, the barricades were down and they were allowed in by the Capitol police.
Finally, President Trump offered up to 10,000 National Guard Troops to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and they turned him down. A president can’t send them by himself, they have to be asked for
Trump will win his appeal of conviction in higher court. Do you see? Dem jurys, Dem judges, Dem prosecutors may convict trump but he will win in appeal.
The MAGA Court effectively killed America today. British colonists broke away from a Mad King BECAUSE they did not want a leader with absolute power.
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When it was said the SCOTUS majority were originalists, I didn’t think it would be a return to the days of Mad King George. Or, in this case [as SCOTUS seems to be covering for] Mad King Donnie.
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But if a leader is immune via “presidential acts”, maybe Joe should have Seal Team Six throw Trump in Gitmo since he is an enemy agent of the US, in for Putin.
Whenever Trump tells you that the world is laughing at America, he is only half lying. The world was laughing for the first few months of his presidency. Now the world has turned away in shame, like when your child passes gas at a restaurant.
Can we keep the politics off this site please? I can read about that anywhere and everywhere. I come to TVLine for information about my favorite shows, not politics.
Let’s get back to the basics.
I´m from europe and let me tell you from a more distant and maybe even a littel more objective view it realy does not matter who you elect. Trump and Biden are both nothing but sad jokes (as sadly are both parties they represent since neither has anyone better or even just a little less incompetent to replace them) but not presidential candidates Your choises are between Disaster and Disaster. So you see you are F— either way.
good luck and my condolences.
This speech could have been a memo.
The supreme Court should be disbanded and the new judges should only have a term of several years. The USA has corrupt and biased judges in power until death like dictators it’s nuts.
This ruling only works if it is applied to all presidents, current and former. So Nixon never commited a crime according to this ruling. I’m curious to see what the ruling will be if it ever happens to a Democrat president. When that president did not appoint most members of the court who now owe him.
I work in the Federal Government. It is better under a Republican governance. Sure, there’s always going to be infighting. The two sides struggle to compromise. In my opi nion, disagree is you like, democrats ask for more than they want to give. Plus, my retirement grew much better and there was less unrest under Trump.
Now, feel free to bicker about my opinion. You know you will.