Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has replaced the U.S. Supreme Court with the Republican National Committee after some conservative justices indicated they were open to arguments supporting former President Trump’s immunity from prosecution. (RNC) said it should be moved to headquarters.
“These are politicians who, unlike me, are not subject to universal suffrage,” Raskin said Thursday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.” “They should move the Supreme Court to RNC headquarters because they are acting like a bunch of partisan operatives.”
Mr. Raskin’s assessment comes from attorney John Sauer, who is representing Mr. Trump in Thursday’s arguments on the former president’s immunity clause, saying that even if his client ordered the military to eliminate political opponents, he would still be subject to presidential immunity. This is in response to the suggestion that there is.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Sauer whether “fundamentally evil” acts, such as having the military eliminate political opponents, would be protected from criminal prosecution.
The attorney said he has heard a variety of scenarios from judges at the nation’s highest courts, most of which could qualify for protection.
“It could be an official act,” Sauer said.
Raskin, a member of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said that if Trump were to face criminal charges, his supporters would “become more violent” to detain the former president. He strongly criticized Justice Samuel Alito’s argument that it could encourage “a coup d’état.” office.
The Maryland lawmaker said Alito’s comments “buy into” the former president’s “narcissistic criminal worldview.”
“What was most surprising to me today is that holding the president criminally responsible for crimes that were actually committed, whether it was murder or a coup, actually holding the president accountable is actually going to go even further in order to maintain public order. The question Justice Alito actually asked was whether it would encourage him to stage a violent coup d’état.” This is a narcissistic crime by Donald Trump, who appealed to the Office of the President to avoid prosecution. “I fully support the worldview of the world,” he said.
“So, throughout American history, we have said that if a president commits a crime, he is subject to criminal prosecution,” he continued.
“Now they say, if you get really mean to Donald Trump and hold him accountable in the same way that every other American citizen is accountable, he’s really going to overthrow the government.” He’s going to bring out some really big guns, but we don’t have that luxury.”
Raskin called this idea “a self-deprecating capitulation to Donald Trump’s authoritarianism.”
“Of course we have to hold the president accountable to the law. The fundamental premise of our law is that no one, including the president, is above the law,” said a House Democrat.
“There are now a number of judges who are asking questions that show they are just as corrupt as the legislators I served with,” he later added.
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