After Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked President Trump's push for impeaching a federal judge, the President shrugged off the Justice's comments because he wasn't mentioned by name. Former Biden-Harris 2020 adviser, Ashley Allison and the NewsNight panel debate the power between executive and judicial branches. #CNN #News
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00:00And I just want to read to you from a document that I'm fond of, the Constitution of the
00:03United States.
00:04Article 3, Section 1, the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme
00:09Court and in such inferior courts as the Congress from may time to time ordain and establish.
00:15One of those inferior courts happens to be the entire district court apparatus.
00:18OK.
00:19So politically, let us not pretend that Democrats have not in the past stated that a president
00:25of their party should not ignore judges.
00:27I remember AOC just a year or two ago talking about President Biden should ignore the ruling
00:32for judges as it pertains to forgiving student debt.
00:34There were a lot of Democrats who made that argument at the time.
00:37I disagreed with that said earlier today, we had Roberto Gonzalez on former AG under
00:41George W. Bush, who was pretty clear he didn't necessarily agree with the post for the president.
00:46But he said from his opinion as an attorney, he's almost certain that the Supreme Court
00:50would agree that the president has the authority to absolutely ship these criminals out of
00:55our country.
00:56So does that mean that Democrats want to die on this issue?
00:59More power to them.
01:00More power to them.
01:01This is not a winning issue for Democrats.
01:04It's the process that we have in our country that is democracy.
01:07It's easy to make this case be the test case because it is, as Scott likes to say, an 80-20
01:13issue.
01:14Right.
01:15And we're not dying on the Hill.
01:16We're dying.
01:17We're trying to protect our Constitution.
01:18So the judge makes a ruling.
01:20It could go to the appellate.
01:21It could go to the Supreme Court.
01:23And when that ruling comes down, people should follow the law, former presidents and current
01:28presidents.
01:29But it doesn't mean that the president gets to have an order by decree just because he
01:33was elected by a majority of Americans.
01:35He can govern.
01:36But we have three branches of government for a reason.
01:39He has an argument to make, though, which is that these people are effectively transnational
01:43terrorists.
01:44And if they were Hamas or ISIS or anyone else, we'd be going through the courts.
01:48We wouldn't wait around four years for 100 judges.
01:51I think the question is, where is the right place to make that argument?
01:54And of course, Donald Trump would prefer to make that argument on Fox News and in the
01:57political arena and on X, where he has the advantage.
02:00And I think what John Roberts is saying is, no, that will actually be decided in the legal
02:04process because that's the way our government is set up.
02:07Now, is that going to be the way that it's ultimately decided?
02:09We don't know.
02:10That's the battle that's going on because we're in an unprecedented situation where
02:13the president of the United States is at least threatening, if not outright, defying court
02:18orders.
02:19He said the opposite on Fox tonight.
02:20He said he would not defy court orders.
02:21Yeah.
02:22He says a lot of things.
02:23And he said he never would.
02:24Yeah.
02:25But the facts of whether or not he actually defied that court order are still being investigated
02:27and we just don't know yet.
02:28But also, the plane was already in the air.
02:30Were they supposed to magically just turn around and bring these people back?
02:34And I have a very serious question here.
02:36Yeah.
02:37Does the president not have any authority to protect American citizens?
02:39Of course he does.
02:40He's a strong man.
02:41Hold on.
02:42Hold on.
02:43Let me put up the timeline for one second here, just so we can establish this.
02:48Look, it's a little bit unclear, as Josh was saying, what exactly happened here.
02:50The judge did sign an order here before the hearing even began.
02:56And then he issued the oral order.
02:58And then there was the written order.
03:00And then the final flight departed there.
03:02So there was a flight that departed after which now the Trump administration is saying
03:05did not have anyone on it that was on it solely because of the Alien Enemies Act.
03:11But right.
03:12So we need to find out what the ground truth is.
03:14But on a broader scale, the president would love to bully everybody into doing what he
03:19wants.
03:20He can bully Congress pretty easily.
03:21He can bully business leaders.
03:22But there are two things he can't bully.
03:23He can't bully the markets.
03:24The markets are going to do what the markets are going to do.
03:26It's like shouting at the rain to stop.
03:28And he can't bully the judges, or at least we don't know if he can.
03:31And those are the two things where actually we might have institutions that are going
03:34to say, wait a second.
03:35It doesn't matter what Donald Trump says on TV or on X or on Fox News.
03:39There's a ground truth here.
03:40It'll be litigated.
03:42No amount of scare tactics and pressure tactics is going to change that.
03:46That's the line in the sand.
03:47It's a good line to draw.
03:49First of all, it's an extraordinary thing.
03:50It is an extraordinary thing that Chief Justice Roberts spoke out against Donald Trump.
03:57I've never in my lifetime seen a chief justice issue a statement in response to a president.
04:04In this situation, the president is calling to impeach a judge just because he disagreed
04:10with the ruling.
04:11And I think we should recognize that that is unprecedented.
04:14And I hope the courts vote.
04:15Liberal icon.
04:16Liberal icon.
04:17Yeah.
04:18New appointed John Roberts.
04:19For John Roberts, this is not the first time that John Roberts has issued a statement about
04:21President Trump.
04:22And how many times have we had Democrats issue statement after statement when the Supreme
04:26Court rules in a way that they don't like?
04:28Okay, this is ridiculous.
04:29We're not talking about Democrats.
04:30Impeaching Thomas Clarence.
04:31No, no, no.
04:32Hold on.
04:33There's a difference.
04:34There's a difference.
04:35There's a difference, Ashley.
04:36I think it's hypocritical.
04:37Because it's not at all.
04:38There is one Chief Justice.
04:39And that is the one who spoke.
04:40Not a Democrat.
04:41Not a talking head.
04:43The Chief Justice spoke and said, we have a process.
04:46Now let's just be honest with the American people right now.
04:49And that Donald Trump is using these cases to invoke his base.
04:54They aren't stupid.
04:56They're selecting certain cases that have a political lens to it.
04:59And they're testing the balance.