'Placed The Crown On The Head Of Donald Trump': Chuck Schumer Blasts SCOTUS' Immunity Ruling

last year

During remarks on the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the Supreme Court's ruling on immunity.

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Transcript

00:00Above the entrance of the Supreme Court are these words,

00:04equal justice under law.

00:06Last week, the conservative justices put some new writing on those walls, figuratively.

00:14The President of the United States is above the law.

00:18Instead of equal justice under the law,

00:21they replaced it with the President of the United States is above the law.

00:26In the aftermath of the 2020 elections,

00:29Donald Trump and his allies conspired for weeks to undermine the will of the people

00:33and halt the peaceful transfer of power.

00:35These efforts culminated in a violent insurrection on January 6th.

00:39These are the facts.

00:41Many of us in the Senate lived through it.

00:44I was within 30 feet of the hooligans who invaded the Capitol.

00:48No free nation can condone a tyrant who abuses his office to try and cling to power.

00:55But that is, in effect, what the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has done.

01:01By ruling, Donald Trump enjoys broad immunity from criminal prosecution

01:05for his actions as president after the 2020 election.

01:09The conservative majority has violated the most basic premise of our Constitution,

01:13that no man is above the law.

01:15Most Americans will see what the court did and think it was grossly political,

01:19a shameless attempt to help Donald Trump out.

01:22I worry that over time, Americans will increasingly lose trust

01:27in what the courts say they've already begun to lose that trust

01:30with these right-wing MAGA decisions,

01:32very few of them found in any precedent at all.

01:36It could be an unraveling of trust in our democratic institutions.

01:40The good news is that the Constitution provides a remedy

01:43to the Supreme Court's terrible decision.

01:46Congress has the authority to exercise strong checks on the judiciary through legislation.

01:51We should look precisely into that, one possible avenue,

01:55clarifying that Donald Trump's election subversion acts

01:59do not count as official acts of the presidency.

02:02Such a notion should hardly be controversial,

02:05and I am working with my colleagues on legislation

02:09to see what kind of proposals would be appropriate.

02:13We were all taught in grade school there are no kings here in America,

02:17but what the conservative justices have done

02:20is place the crown on the head of Donald Trump.

02:23They declared in effect the same thing Nixon told David Frost in 1977 when,

02:28quote, he said, this is what Nixon said,

02:31chased out of office for potential criminal acts,

02:34quote, when the president does it, that means it's not illegal.

02:39That's going to be the new, quote, rule of law in America with these justices?

02:45What a bone-chilling proposition.

02:47If future presidents no longer fear prosecution for their conduct in office,

02:51then what the heck is going to reign them in?

02:54One election every four years?

02:56That's cold comfort if a corrupt president can use their office

02:59to undermine elections in the first place.

03:02It's Catch-22, a very evil one.

03:04It's Autocracy 101.

03:07What if future presidents order the DOJ to arrest election workers?

03:11What if they escalate their attacks on the press?

03:14What if they take bribes in exchange for favors or money?

03:17And what if in each of these instances they claim they were acting in official capacity?

03:22America would be in a state of constitutional pandemonium.

03:27The American people are tired of justices who think they're beyond accountability.

03:31We in Congress should be open to sensible, reasonable solutions

03:35to restore the checks and balances that the MAGA court has taken away.

03:39Heel the floor.

'Placed The Crown On The Head Of Donald Trump': Chuck Schumer Blasts SCOTUS' Immunity Ruling

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