On Tuesday, CNN’s Inside Politics complained about Monday’s Supreme Court decision that ruled presidents have immunity for their official actions while in office. White House reporter at the Washington Post, Yasmeen Abutaleb, baselessly worried that Donald Trump could use the result to “prosecute his enemies.”
Host Dana Bash began by noting the decision “cuts both ways,” recalling how some have said, "Well we're going to prosecute Joe Biden for what he's done at the border.”
Bash also shared former Rep. Adam Kinzinger's ridiculous statement from Monday where he declared, “Well, you know, now, Joe Biden pretty much has the ability to send SEAL Team Six after Donald Trump if he wants to.” Bash described Kinzinger as “being somewhat facetious, but somewhat not.”
Abutaleb described Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second Trump term, as the “platform that seeks to basically eviscerate the federal government.” She continued to claim that the Trump campaign has “been quite systematic and figuring out how they can gut a lot of the protections that exist in the federal government.”
She mourned that the Court just made Trump’s job easier, “getting rid of career federal workers, and now there's this ruling that says he can proceed with that carte blanche and go even further.”
Ready to take one last jab at Trump, Abutaleb proclaimed that he already pushed “the powers of the presidency in many ways we couldn’t imagine” without this new ruling. She concluded by saying, “And now he's been told he can essentially use the DOJ to prosecute his enemies, and that would be protected, there might be a delay in the Manhattan case because he could classify that as an official act.”
The president could already do that. From Trump’s perspective, Joe Biden is doing that right now, and this result is a safeguard against what Abutaleb is warning about.
Click "Expand" to view the transcript:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
7/2/2024
12:38 PM ET
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DANA BASH: I mean, one thing I was thinking though is one of the things that he and others have said is "Well we're going to prosecute Joe Biden for what he's done at the border.”
Well, now you can’t, not that they really probably were, but, you know, it kind of cuts both ways. Adam Kinzinger was on this show yesterday saying, “well, you know, now, Joe Biden pretty much has the ability to send SEAL Team Six after Donald Trump if he wants to.”
I mean, he was being somewhat facetious, but somewhat not.
YASMEEN ABUTALEB: Yeah. I mean, the Trump campaign already has this Project 2025 platform that seeks to basically eviscerate the federal government. You know, they have been quite systematic and figuring out how they can gut a lot of the protections that exist in the federal government, getting rid of career federal workers, and now there's this ruling that says he can proceed with that carte blanche and go even further.
I mean, Trump I think it's important to remember in his first term, Trump was already pushing the powers of the presidency in ways we couldn't imagine without this, sort of, ruling. And now he's been told he can essentially use DOJ to prosecute his enemies, and that would be protected, there might be a delay in the Manhattan case because he could classify that as an official act. So, it's just I think there's still a lot to be seen about just how far this ruling will go.
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