President Joe Biden slammed the United States Supreme Court for issuing a ruling earlier on Monday that presidents are covered by limited immunity from criminal prosecutions for actions they have taken while serving in office.
“No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Biden said during a live speech as he addressed the nation. “Today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed. For all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.”
“This is a fundamentally new principle, and it’s a dangerous precedent because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States,” Biden added. “The only limits will be self-imposed by the president.”
The president continued to criticize the Supreme Court for having attacked “a wide range of long-established legal principles” in the U.S.
“Nearly 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,” Biden continued:
Attack on the police, the ransacking of the Capitol, a mob literally hunting down the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, gallows erected to hang the vice president, Mike Pence. I think it’s fair to say it’s one of the darkest days in the history of America. Now, the man who sent that mob to the U.S. Capitol is facing potential criminal conviction for what happened that day. The American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the upcoming election. The public has a right to know the answer about what happened on January 6 before they’re asked the vote again this year.
Biden labeled the Supreme Court’s decision a “disservice” and added that the American people would have to serve as the jury.
“Now, the American people have to do what the court should have been willing to do but will not,” Biden added:
The American people have to render a judgment about Donald Trump’s behavior. 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. The American people must decide if Trump’s embrace of violence to preserve his power is acceptable. Perhaps, most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust the president once again, the presidency to Donald Trump.
In a six-to-three decision, the Supreme Court ruled, “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”