President Joe Biden on Monday sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling on the US Constitution. Donald Trump‘s invocation of presidential immunity, in comments that departed from his relative silence on his election rival’s ongoing criminal cases.
In a brief address from the White House, Biden said the court “did a terrible disservice to the people of this country” with its ruling granting Trump some immunity from prosecution in his federal election interference case.
“Nobody is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Biden said. “Today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity fundamentally changes that. For everyone — “For all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means there are virtually no limits to what the president can do.”
He called Monday’s ruling a continuation of the Supreme Court’s assault “on a broad range of long-established legal principles in our country,” including voting rights and abortion rights. Biden cast the decision as one that raises the stakes of this election.
“The American people must decide whether they want to entrust the presidency — again, the presidency — to Donald Trump now, knowing that he will have even greater courage to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants,” he said.
Biden’s brief remarks come as he faces intense pressure from some Democratic donors, strategists and lawmakers to resign after last week’s disastrous debate performance. The president has largely refrained from commenting on Trump’s criminal charges — though he did call Trump a “convicted felon” after the presumptive GOP nominee’s conviction in New York in May.
Still, Trump attacked his Democratic rival in a series of Truth Social posts Monday night, alleging that Biden’s speech was an attempt to “distract attention from his terrible campaign performance.”
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
