By Raul Castillo
01 Jul 2024, 21:31 PM EDT
President Joe Biden on Monday attacked the Supreme Court’s decision to grant former President Donald Trump partial immunity in his criminal election interference case, calling it “a terrible disservice to the people of this nation.”
“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America. All of us, every single one of us, is equal before the law. No one, no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. With today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that has fundamentally changed for all practical purposes,” Biden said in remarks from the White House.
While the immunity outlined by the Supreme Court in Trump’s case is applicable to Biden and other future presidents, the Democrat stressed the importance of a US president having “the wisdom” to respect the limits of power. Therefore, he pledged to respect those limits.
The Democratic president, however, said the ruling was “a dangerous precedent” in determining that any president “can feel free to ignore the law” without facing consequences.
Biden stressed that the decision would delay the trial until after the November election, which he said would deny voters a resolution of the charges against Trump.
“The American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the next election,” the president said. “The people have a right to know the answer to what happened on January 6 before they are asked to vote again this year.”
He added: “The American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s attack on our democracy on January 6th makes him unfit to hold the highest public office in the land. The American people must decide whether it is acceptable for Trump to resort to violence to preserve his power.”
In this regard, he said that Trump now “knows that he will have more courage to do what he wants.”
“The president is now a king”
The Democrat also cited progressive Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who on Monday issued a written statement expressing her disagreement with the decision of her fellow justices and warning that the ruling could give any president the same power as a king.
“I agree with the dissent expressed today by Judge Sotomayor,” Biden said. “She said that the president is now a king above the law. Out of fear for our democracy, I dissent. Should the American people dissent?”
Former President Trump scored a victory Monday after the Supreme Court ruled that he enjoys partial immunity for his efforts as president to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election that led to the storming of the Capitol. The court also sent the case back to lower courts, reducing the chances that he will be tried before the election.
With information from EFE.
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