National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry on Saturday rejected claims by New York Times reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro that the Supreme Court's immunity ruling could elevate the president to monarchy.
The Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that the president is immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” performed while in office. Garcia-Navarro told “The Chris Wallace Show” that the ruling was “very vague” and “could be interpreted as meaning the president is now king,” but Lowry said that America's core institutions still function the same way. (Related: “Political justice”: Kamala Harris' antics during confirmation hearings hint at the “radical” judge she will nominate)
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“How is the president a king? We don't even have elections in America anymore,” Rowley asked, adding that having elections means the president isn't a king.
“Of course there will be elections, but if there is no evidence that he can act as he wants, he can't be held accountable,” Garcia-Navarro said, before Rowley interrupted him.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent from the immunity ruling, argued that the majority's decision “reconfigures the presidency” and that “the president is now a king above the law.”
“The whole system of checks and balances remains intact, right? We're still a free country and the logic of the court's decision has to do with maintaining those checks and balances… Congress can't make the president's official duties illegal without overstepping the bounds of the Constitution, right,” Rowley said. “So the idea that because something has never happened before, we need to indict the president or that otherwise we're living in a monarchy or a dictatorship is absurd.”
“But we're talking about specifics, we're not talking about hypotheticals,” Garcia-Navarro countered. “We're talking about someone who actually tried to overturn an election, who actually tried to overturn the transfer of power.”
The Supreme Court's immunity decision came after former President Donald Trump appealed to dismiss special counsel Jack Smith's election interference lawsuit. Smith filed suit on Tuesday. Indictment The indictment against Trump in that case contains the same four conspiracy and obstruction charges as the original indictment but was shortened following the verdict.
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