With Joe Biden's candidacy in peril and polls continuing to show that Donald Trump is headed for reelection — even against potential Biden alternatives — the Democrats have a real problem on their hands. Experts on both sides would likely say that Trump would win big if the election were held today, and Democrats have been fully invested in their "democracy is on the line" narrative that they have to try something to stop Trump.
For sure, they've tried a lot already; from their lawfare strategy to the nationwide effort to remove him from the ballot, there isn't a trick they haven't tried. Or so you thought.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that official presidential acts are subject to presidential immunity while unofficial acts are not.
"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," Chief Justice John Roberts explained in the ruling. "There is no immunity for unofficial acts."
Democrats were outraged because they really, really, really wanted to nab Trump for something. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), however, thinks he's found a way to get around the ruling and put Trump in jail.
While on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Schumer announced he plans to introduce legislation to reclassify Trump's actions leading up to the Capitol riot as "unofficial acts" so that he can be charged with something in relation to the events of that day — even though he did nothing wrong.
Schumer announces on Senate floor that he will work on legislation to classify former President Trump's actions leading to the Jan. 6 attack on Congress as "unofficial" acts, so they do not qualify for immunity under recent SCOTUS ruling.
— Alex Bolton (@alexanderbolton) July 8, 2024
“We Democrats will not let the Supreme Court’s decision stand unaddressed. The Constitution makes plain that Congress has the authority to check the judiciary through appropriate legislation. I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump’s election subversion acts as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” Schumer said.
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“We’re doing this because we believe that in America no president should be free to overturn an election against the will of the people, no matter what the conservative justices may believe,” Schumer continued. “As we work on this important matter, we’ll also keep working on other proposals to reassert Congress’s Article I authority to rein in the abuse of our federal judiciary. The American people are tired, just tired, of justices who think they are beyond accountability.”
I have to wonder what kind of constitutional wizardry Schumer thinks he's pulling off here. The concept of separation of powers exists for a reason, and if it were that simple for Congress to redefine what constitutes an official presidential act to nab a sitting president for something or reverse something it didn't like, someone would have tried it by now. This is how desperate the Democrats are. They know they are losing, and they're getting so desperate that they will try any absurd idea.
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