CNN's Jake Tapper seems a bit too interested in the idea that the recent SCOTUS ruling about the immunity of former presidents gives them the ability to assassinate his political opponents.
As posted by Media Research Center's Nicholas Fondacaro, Tapper sat with his CNN panel and suggested that a notion made by Justice Sotomayor in April argued that Biden could send SEAL Team 6 in to assassinate a political rival. After the court's ruling was released Monday, effectively neutering the January 6 case against Trump, Tapper got the same wild notion in his head that many of the leftists did and expressed it live on air.
“Did the court say, ‘Yeah, you can assassinate a political rival?’”
He was immediately shot down by his fellow panelists, including Elliot Williams.
"To your question, Jake, someone's got to decide what's the official act. Right? The challenge here, and this was what Sotomayor was getting at in her point, somebody has to make the call as to whether even the SEAL – the preposterous SEAL Team 6 example falls under the ambit of official acts and that's litigation months in court?" said Williams.
Tapper suggests SCOTUS may have okayed presidents assassinating political rivals and gets immediately rebuked by Elie Honig and the rest of the legal analysts. pic.twitter.com/ioFzX1INm0
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 1, 2024
But despite that being a hard "no," by the panel, Tapper kept coming back around to the idea, quoting Sotomayor's dissent on the immunity ruling:
I wanna just read something from a Justice Sotomayor's dissent on some of these issues that we're talking about. “Let the president violate the law.” She writes in her dissent, “Let them 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 them to be. That is the majority's message today. Orders the Navy 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.”
Tapper laughs about tearing down the legitimacy of SCOTUS and quote's Sotomayor's dissenting opinion that insanely asserts presidents are immune to assassinating political rivals. pic.twitter.com/dje41qDphh
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 1, 2024
Tapper seems a little too hyperfocused on the idea that Biden can kill his rivals. While he's not saying it out loud, there are leftists who are being very open about who Biden should assassinate with his new SCOTUS-born powers, Donald J. Trump.
This seems to be on the forefront of quite a few minds on the left, and it truly shows just how desperate they are to get rid of Trump. While some of them are, of course, being sarcastic, this is one of those situations where they're totally joking...but not. Too many of the more honest people are legitimately floating the idea that perhaps Biden should do exactly that to make sure Trump stays out of office.
This is all absolute lunacy that I think was summed up well by The Federalist's Sean Davis:
SCOTUS: You can’t just throw your rival in prison because you don’t like him.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 1, 2024
DEMOCRATS: So you’re saying we can drop bombs on him?
SCOTUS: You really can’t even charge your rival with a crime because his presidency made you mad.
DEMOCRATS: Got it. So we can incinerate his…
To be very, very clear here, Biden does not have the power to assassinate American citizens. That is not a power he has enshrined in Article II. It is not an enumerated power. Moreover, he has absolute immunity for core constitutional powers but presumptive immunity for official acts. This means that Biden, or any president for that matter, can't just go around committing crimes while in office.
Murdering your political rival is not a core constitutional power.
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