Biden surrogates brushed off questions about reining in the court, while emphasizing the gravity of a second Trump term.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that American presidents have “absolute immunity” from prosecution for any “official acts” they take while in office. For President Joe Biden, this should be great news. Suddenly a host of previously unthinkable options have opened up to him: He could dispatch Seal Team 6 to Mar-A-Lago with orders to neutralize the “primary threat to freedom and democracy” in the United States. He could issue an edict that all digital or physical evidence of his debate performance last week be destroyed. Or he could just use this chilling partisan decision, the latest 6-3 ruling in a term that was characterized by a staggering number of them, as an opportunity to finally embrace the movement to reform the Supreme Court.
But Biden is not planning to do any of that. Shortly after the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Trump v. The United States, the Biden campaign held a press call with surrogates, including Harry Dunn, a Capitol police officer who was on duty the day Trump supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6; Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas); and deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks.
Their message was simple: It’s terrifying to contemplate what Donald Trump might do with these powers if he’s reelected.
“We have to do everything in our power to stop him,” Fulks said.
Everything, that is, except take material action to rein in the increasingly lawless and openly right-wing Supreme Court.
Read the article, not the headline, he's not saying he won't do it or would veto legislation around it. He says he'll consider court reform. He's "dismissing it" as a thing to focus on right now because you need an an unrealistic amount of congressional votes to pack the court. Good luck with that. The supreme court interprets laws, with less votes than you need to expand it, you can write blisteringly clear legislation that leaves no room for interpretation. Supreme court problem solved.
TFG is a threat to democracy. but we won't do anything about it. please vote harder.
no system can survive without mechanisms to protect itself. if a person is immunocompromised, a simple illness can destroy their body. if your computer doesn't have an antivirus, a simple virus can take over the whole system.
if your democracy doesn't have a way to extinguish fascism before it takes over, don't expect democracy to survive it by chance.
this is the executive branch refusing to put checks on a clearly corrupt and dysfunctional judicial branch. The stability of our 3 branch system depends on the branches being willing and able to check each other. If one branch yields to another, the system fails.
Biden once again bringing a deck of cards to a gunfight because responding effectively and proportionally in a situation that desperatetly calls for it wOuLd bE DiVisiVE.
THIS position is a justification for calling for him to step down from the candidacy, because refusing to even consider reforming - let alone packing (or, dare I say, the newly-revealed presidentially-legal-if-“official” extralegal and violent unpacking) the Supreme Court is very obviously going to lead to the long term failure of not only the Democratic Party, but democracy in this country in general.
Because of course they did. God forbid a dem take any kind of unseemly action. Instead, we got a 5min press conference about how unacceptable it all is.
Conservatives, I understand. They're sick, and toxic, but they fight for what they believe in. Which is why we have to defeat them, and why we have to fight back so hard.
But Liberals, man, I just don't get it. Like zero goddamn fight in them. No political will. Not in my lifetime anyway. "Hey we're kinda less shitty than fascists, vote Democrat."
And I have to, but like, only to keep from sliding into the abyss in my own lifetime. So inspiring. Time to start over.
Wouldn't the correct move be to immediately prove why such a ruling is asinine? Use official powers to reform the court, new court removes dangerous ruling asap, guard rail repaired.
It's astonishing that a man of his age is still flexible enough to stick his head up his own ass. He still thinks he can work with conservatives, doesn't he?
Reforming the Supreme Court was basically Pete's thing during the primaries. He was talking about it years before Roe, Chevron, and absolute immunity. He suggested adding 6 more judges, 5 of which would be rotating appointments by the other 10. It's a shame Biden won't do anything about this - especially when there are other leaders in the party who would.
Sure. We'll just have a nice nap while the Christo-fascists take over the World's most powerful nuclear state. At least they'll know we took the high road!
The Democrats aren't going to "save you". They like having the Boogeyman of Trump or <insert crazy Republican> to get you to vote in "the most important election in our lifetime".
Don't get me wrong, Trump and the Republicans will do more damage socially, but the Democrats couldn't/didn't/won't stop that even when they control(ed) the White House, House of Representative, and the Senate.
They are an existential threat to our freedom and democracy! We have to do everything in our power to stop them! Except, you know, doing anything. That would be inconceivable.
If you dont try to fight fascism with every tool avaliable and legal to you, then you're a fascist. There's no if and or buts about it. Biden could take steps to counter fascism but instead he make committments to explicitly not fight it using the new SCOTUS ruling and even not to change the courts.
Even if he wins, in 4 years were going to be right back to fascism because he is explicitly refusing to fix this. Hes unfit to fight fascism which means hes unfit to be president in the modern US.
I promise you that trump and the Christo-fascist movement that he represents will be very creative and forceful wielding this power. For Biden and the Democratic leadership to asymmetrically disarm is yet another example of why the fascists keep advancing despite being unpopular on nearly every issue. The allegiance to decorum and gentlemanly procedure is killing us. Remember when Obama just let them steal a Supreme Court seat, without any fight at all? Hell, remember when Gore just cowardly backed down and ceded his win for the good of the country? I’ll say it again. Every bit of awfulness that Republican authoritarians are successfully persecuting is actively enabled by a pathologically cowardly, ineffective Democratic Party. Biden is exactly the wrong leader for this moment in history.
At this point, what benefit is there of doing nothing and "following the rules"?
If Biden wins, then what? It doesn't fix any of the BS the supreme Court has created it just buys a couple more years until Trump tries again or the next Rep maga agent comes along. Looking at the state of the Republican party, this would be almost any of them at this point then the US is in the exact same position.
They can't hold off the Republicans forever.
Of course if he does reset the court, jails or executes Trump then that plays directly into the hands of the crazies too "SEE! We told you he's trying to take over democracy!!"
Biden has already prerecorded his congratulations to trump phone call and plans on sending it a week before the election. He believes it's the only option available to him under the constitution and prevailing sense of political realism.
well he cant reform the supreme court. Doing that would not be affected by this immunity descision. Its still a crime to follow unlawful orders from an immune president.
The reality is the democrats can't reform the supreme court, because they don't control the House of Representatives, and barely control the Senate.
To enact reform of that type they would need solid majorities in both chambers and control of the presidency. That remains very unlikely. Even simple ideas like expanding the court rather than meaningful reform is impossible as no nominees would get through congress.
It makes sense the democrats make their campaign focused on Donald Trump. And as bad as the supreme court is at the moment, the democrats have bigger issues to deal with - a lacklustre campaign with a poor candidate. It'll be hard enough trying to convince people Biden is a good choice as a candidate, let alone move into complex areas like judicial reform.
I don’t understand how he can make changes to the Supreme Court using this new Supreme Court ruling. My understanding is that change requires Congress and the recent ruling just means he can’t be held accountable for crimes committed as official acts.
What crimes are being suggested to change the Supreme Court?
Suddenly a host of previously unthinkable options have opened up to him: He could dispatch Seal Team 6 to Mar-A-Lago with orders to neutralize the “primary threat to freedom and democracy” in the United States.
Or he could just use this chilling partisan decision, the latest 6-3 ruling in a term that was characterized by a staggering number of them, as an opportunity to finally embrace the movement to reform the Supreme Court.
Shortly after the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Trump v. The United States, the Biden campaign held a press call with surrogates, including Harry Dunn, a Capitol police officer who was on duty the day Trump supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6; Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas); and deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks.
Under pressure in 2020, then-candidate Biden promised that, if elected, he would appoint a bipartisan commission to consider reforms to the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.
It’s worth noting, he offered that pledge before the court overturned Roe v. Wade, before it struck down a Trump-era ban on the device that facilitated the deadliest mass shooting in American history, and before it ended affirmative action in college admissions.
Asked what the campaign’s message to voters who have watched as the court has delivered a stream of deeply partisan decisions and who believe the system is broken, and who want to know what Biden would do to fix it in a second term, Fulks offered: “We’re going to continue to make the case and talk to voters about the fact that the judges that Donald Trump put on the court have, honestly, taken away rights from Americans and given more freedom to Donald Trump as president United States to do whatever he wants … This campaign is gonna spend every day from now until November continuing to make that case that if Donald Trump gets anywhere near the White House again, he will do exactly what he has been telling us for months.
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Because it's a stupid idea. Some Democrats and Liberals want to completely change our political system, judicial system, and Constitution, because thy're not getting their way? It's fucking stupid. Trump was in office and was able to appoint who he wanted...it's pure luck that things worked out in his favor during his Presidency... t's a cycle that will continue when he's long gone and some hardcore liberal President does the same... we don't change everything because one side is upset. STFU Democrats.
"Official Acts" are the acts within the powers granted by the constitution, and acts of Congress. Biden (and any future presidents) can't just punch someone, say "I officially punch you!" and get off the hook.
This is similar to the immunity every judge and prosecutor in the country gets. Basically, inb4 the only result of this ruling is a few charges against Trump are dropped.
Roosevelt needed the support of congress for that, which Biden doesn’t have. Unless you want him to order assassins or a military coup, I don’t think there’s anything he can do.
For all of you urging Biden to abuse these ridiculous new powers... Are you nuts? Part of Biden's appeal is that he's the sane one, not the demented orange baboon. If he starts behaving just like that festering asshole, he's going to lose a lot of that appeal. A lot of people will go, "Well, if my choice is between a shit sandwich and a shit salad, I'm not eating at this restaurant," and stay home on election day.