Democrats expressed concern that former President Donald Trump could legally target political opponents if he regains power due to the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
They criticized the decision for potentially enabling presidents to act with impunity, even in extreme scenarios such as assassination or military coups.
“The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding. This new official-acts immunity now ‘lies about like a loaded weapon’ for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.
If Trump ever becomes president, immunity wouldn’t matter.
What does matter – American people should start to understand the authoritarian rule which this decision stems.
If a president has seal team 6 kill his political opponents & mark them as official acts .. it’s over!
— Deborah Fortkiewicz (@dfortkiewicz) July 1, 2024
“The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
“Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” Sotomayor wrote.
Some Democrats have gone so far as wishing the Biden administration would use the military against Trump.
Meanwhile, conservatives mocked Biden’s perceived weaknesses, and have implied that Biden is already been pursuing opponents illegally.
