Former presidential adviser Van Jones condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, arguing Monday it would give Trump freedom to violate the law or “license to thug.”
The Supreme Court ruled Monday in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts.
“The President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the President’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
Jones argued on CNN that the Supreme Court proved with this ruling that rather than acting as umpires protecting the rule of law, justices “look like they‘re wearing red jerseys, or even MAGA hats” and giving Trump freedom to commit crimes.
“It‘s going to go down bad politically for Supreme Court. It‘s also scary because what is Trump going to do? If Trump gets elected, and there‘s this idea that he can get away with even more stuff. That‘s really, really scary for the public because he already ran over every norm that he could. So it seems like – just looking at this politically, not legally, politically – it‘s almost like a license to thug in a way like, you can do whatever you want and the Supreme Court is probably going to let you get away with it.”
Jones later suggested that while debating about the power of the presidency is one thing, America is currently facing unique circumstances.
“Now you‘re concerned about a renegade president,” Jones argued. “Are you concerned about a renegade president prosecuting someone unfairly after the fact, or acting like a rogue or a thug in office? It‘s not clear what‘s the greater threat to the republic, and it doesn‘t seem like the majority really has taken as seriously the concern of half the country about renegade presidencies in the office.”
Conservative CNN political commentator Scott Jennings argued that some responses to the ruling have been an overreaction, and that the Constitution already has a means of restraining rogue presidents.
“The Constitution does give the United States Congress a way to rein in any president at any time they feel like it, and it‘s called impeachment, and he was impeached twice, and he was acquitted twice,” he said. “But at the end of the day, this is the wisdom of the Founders, they gave us the ultimate political tool to rein in any presidency at any time they felt like it.”
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Jones argued that the virtue of the ideas of the Republic that existed in the Founders’ time ultimately seems less present in society today.
“They didn‘t imagine that you would have people elevated that act the way that Donald Trump is acting and act the way a lot of people in public office act today,” Jones said.
