President Joe Biden branded the US Supreme Court’s decision on Presidential immunity “dangerous” and warned it would embolden former President Donald Trump if he wins another term in November.
Biden made the comments in White House’s Cross Hall on Monday night as he ignored questions about his own fitness for office following his nightmare performance in the first Presidential debate last week.
The 81-year-old warned instead that the nation’s top court, which has a conservative majority, “fundamentally changed” a core principle of the nation as he urged people to reject his Republican rivals’ pitch to the country.
“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America,” Biden told reporters.
“Today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,” he continued. “This is a fundamentally new principle and it’s a dangerous precedent.”
He warned that, “The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone.”
On Monday, the court ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, extending the delay in the Washington criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and all but ending prospects the former president could be tried before the November election.
In a historic 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority, including the three justices appointed by the former President, narrowed the case against him and returned it to the trial court to determine what is left of special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment.
Trump posted in all capital letters on his Truth Social platorm shortly after the decision was released, writing: “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”
It comes after the property mogul was convicted in New York on 34 counts of business fraud related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run up to the 2016 election. Sentencing in the case is set for next week.
Biden said the the Supreme Court’s decision was a continued “attack” on a “wide range of long established legal principles,” as he pointed to the Trump-led reversal of Roe v. Wade which rolled back abortion rights in the US, and controversial decisions related to civil and voting rights.
Referring to the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters following his defeat in the 2020 election, Biden said, “Only four years ago, my predecessor sent a violent mob to the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. We all saw it with our own eyes. We sat there and watched it happen that day,” said Biden.
He added that the American people “must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy on January 6 makes him unfit for public office – the highest office in the land”.
Donald Trump’s campaign has been approached for comment.
But Biden, the oldest President in the country’s history, then ignored questions as he left, as concerns mount over his mental acuity swirl.
The President has faced calls to drop out the race after a miserable showing in his head-to-head with Trump in Atlanta on Thursday, appearing at times to lose his train of thought and prompting the Republican to claim at one point he couldn’t understand what the Democrat was saying.
In one particularly awkward exchange during the CNN face-off, Biden faltered when answering a question about the economy, saying: “We would be able to wipe out his debt, clear up all those things we need to do in childcare, elder care, making sure we continue to strengthen our healthcare system, making sure we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’m been able to do with dealing with everything”.
He then misspoke as he added: “If we finally beat Medicare…” Biden has since acknowledged he doesn’t debate “as well as I used to” but has vowed to stay in the race and beat Trump.
