Speaker Johnson calls SCOTUS immunity decision a Trump “victory” and Biden “defeat”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that the recent Supreme Court ruling, which grants Donald Trump limited immunity on actions taken during his presidency, is a “victory” in Trump’s favor.
“Today’s ruling by the Court is a victory for former President Trump and all future presidents, and another defeat for President Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice and Jack Smith,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s words echo Trump’s narrative that the efforts by special counsel Jack Smith were politicized, which has caught wind among Republican lawmakers and justices. The House Appropriations Committee released a proposal last week that would involve nearly $1 billion in cuts to the Justice Department.
Meanwhile, Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday raised questions about whether Attorney General Merrick Garland violated the Constitution when he appointed Jack Smith as special counsel.
Biden campaign says Supreme Court immunity decision hands Trump “the keys to a dictatorship”
The Biden campaign said the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity “doesn’t change the facts,” and doubled down on allegations that former President Donald Trump “snapped” when he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
“Donald Trump snapped after he lost the 2020 election and encouraged a mob to overthrow the results of a free and fair election,” a senior campaign adviser said in a statement shortly after the court issued the decision. “Trump is already running for president as a convicted felon for the very same reason he sat idly by while the mob violently attacked the Capitol: he thinks he’s above the law and is willing to do anything to gain and hold onto power for himself.”
The Biden campaign also attacked the “conflicted and compromised” Supreme Court Monday after its ruling that presidents have immunity for “official acts,” and accused the court of handing former President “Donald Trump the keys to a dictatorship.”
“Donald Trump is still the single greatest threat to our democracy,” Officer Harry Dunn, a former US Capitol police officer who was on duty during the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack said during a Biden-Harris campaign call with the media. “It’s true even more, even more, and especially with this ruling right now.”
Dunn said he didn’t “need nine Supreme Court justices to tell me that Donald Trump was responsible for January 6” and said a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol “in his name, on his orders.”
New York Rep. Dan Goldman, who ran the first impeachment against Trump, said the “decision by the conflicted and compromised, Supreme Court has set back our democracy dramatically.” The congressman said that if Joe Biden is not elected in November “we will not have a democracy that we have known for 250 years.”
Asked if Biden himself would speak about the decision — and if his level of public activity would increase after last week’s widely panned debate performance — Quentin Fulks, Biden-Harris 2024 principal deputy campaign manager, said he didn’t have any events to announce.
This post has been updated with additional reactions from the Biden campaign.
