This week, the argument before the Supreme Court in Trump v. Anderson captivated the nation as the justices considered the disqualification of former President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot. For some of us, the argument brought back vivid memories of covering Bush v. Gore almost 25 years ago. While one justice (Clarence Thomas) remains on the Court, the last major intervention of the Court into a close presidential election is a matter of distant history.
As someone who covered both cases, much is regrettably familiar: the deep division in the country and rage of many advocates. However, unlike in 2000, the Court itself appears virtually unanimous in this case. The biggest difference is not the Court but the coverage.
The Trump case exposed the erosion of legal coverage in the media. For millions of Americans, the cold reception of all of the justices to the novel theory under the 14th Amendment came as a surprise. Networks and newspapers have been featuring experts who assured the public that this theory was well-based and disqualification well-established. The only barrier, they insisted, was the blind partisanship of the six conservative justices on the Court.
Twenty-four years ago, I was covering the Bush v. Gore case for CBS. I had just left NBC as an analyst when the election controversy exploded. While there were the usual partisans and some outlets slanted the merits, the legal analysis was overall balanced and informative.
This is not a case of the Court changing. We have changed as legal analysts. The Court itself is deeply divided on some issues. However, the justices gave a fair hearing to both sides. That is not the case with the coverage.
Looking back at the coverage, most legacy media called upon the same legal experts who have previously endorsed virtually every claim made against Trump. They predictably declared Trump as clearly disqualified despite the fact that this theory has never been embraced by the federal courts.
Figures like federal court Judge J. Michael Luttig who called these arguments against disqualification as “revealing, fatuous, and politically and constitutionally cynical.” Others insisted that the argument that the provision might not apply to presidents was “absurd.” That was the argument pushed by Justice Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson.
Many of the media turned to Professor Laurence Tribe despite a long record of constitutional claims rejected by the Court, in some cases unanimously. Tribe assured the public that the theory was “unassailable” and also insisted that the theory (later voiced by Jackson) is “an absurd interpretation.”
It is important that such views are heard in the coverage. The problem is that the media has, once again, pushed this novel (and in my view unfounded) theory to the point that many assumed that it was indeed unassailable.
What was most troubling is the repeated attacks on the Court by legal experts who suggested that the only thing keeping Trump on the ballot was the bias of conservative justices. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D. Md.) declared “This is their opportunity to behave like real Supreme Court justices.” It appears that both Justices Kagan and Jackson did not behave like “real Supreme Court justices” in oral argument by objecting to core aspects of this theory.
We will have to wait for the final opinion but most of us are predicting a reversal of Colorado and the possibility of a unanimous or near unanimous decision. The question is whether such a result will change how media outlets frame these disputes in the future. After weeks of portraying the opposition as only resting with the right of the Court, the coverage had a weird disjointed feel as some of the same commentators reported that the justices appeared uniformly unconvinced by this “unassailable” theory.
The three Democrat justices will get the word: we’re going to lose anyway, but losing 6-3 will make it look partisan rather than a Trump vindication, so that’s what we want. They will listen.
Joetard is allegedly competent to serve as president but not competent to stand trial.
This is Through the Looking Glass stuff, like being asked to believe that someone is both a genius AND a moron. This just might be the lowest point our corrupt government has ever reached — a new record — the lowest bottom yet reached in the nonstop effort to reach the legendary bottom of the barrel.
If you want to see the ultimate bottom of the barrel, check out Justin Trudeau, the cross-dressing, clown who is nothing but a vapid leftist commie swine who, apparently, is living in dire fear of the fake climate change crisis … He knows nothing and like Joetard, anything he says or does is ordered up not by him, but by some ghouls in the back room
Never say that the “ultimate bottom of the barrel” has been reached, because there are MANY people in our “society” (for lack of a better word) who will take that as a challenge to find an even-lower bottom. And the odds are that they WILL find one. Thus my phrasing, “lowest bottom yet reached.”
I wish Charles Krauthammer were still alive — he had the most wonderful and eloquent way of ‘cutting to the chase.’
Hear, hear!
It truly is something out of a Twighlight zone episode to have a sitting potus get away with a crime because he’s declared all but formally as senile , yet he is still allowed to be potus ( actually in name only ) and knowing full well it’s his hidden in the shadows handlers whom are actually running this country into a ditch. Cant make this crazy stuff up !.
One thing about the LEFT when they come to a conclusion about what they believe is the truth, they are never tempted to receive advice or consider alternative observations that just might conflict with what they believe.
They are very much enamored with the MSM that is in lock step with their political agendas and supportive of them.
The idea that they might be wrong is so alien to their make up it just cannot be entertained lest they wake up and find themselves agreeing with others they have already labeled as racists. The SCOTUS has done a very simple thing. It has forced the attorneys of the State of Colorado to not only defend their position in light of reality (There was no Insurrection) but in addition to that, to consider the consequences, that if the Court were to rule in their favor, they would quite likely completely disenfranchise all of the voters of this nation along political lines. The LEFT firmly believes that accusations are FACTS and are equal to Convictions in a court of law. Even when there has been no trial, no jury, no due process of the Law. The reality is the LEFT despises elections. They hate the idea that anyone that disagrees with them should be allowed to vote against them.
What bunk.
Not an argument.
Yesterday was a “super-collider” event between the Regime and our justice system, resulting in the destruction of their oatmeal-brain for a president’s reelection hopes and the rise of Trumps. It’s beyond my understanding how Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report doesn’t immediately lead to a serious 25th amendment debate. No doubt Hur ran up against an Attorney General that would not take any further action against Biden. And so he did what he had to do to get all the facts out to the American people. This so-called leader of the free world is not even the leader in his own house. As bad as the VP is, the time for invoking the 25th is not when Biden has to be awakened to mumble out an authorization to launch an attack on ChiRusbl&infistder#flopal.
Your fooling yourself if the DS does not want Biden gone at this point. I think this was on purpose to push him out.
We do not want to do their dirty work at this point and push Biden out, we want him on the 2024 ballot. they want a heroic departure for him so he will be sacrificed so the first woman (of color is a huge bonus for them) will be a D POTUS
I think they know that Biden has become a terrible liability. However getting rid of him will be far easier than dealing with the political fallout that likely will follow. Regardless, I hope all of the Democrat leadership ends up falling on their swords, and unintentional contributes to a landslide victory for Donald Trump.
Fredo, after yesterday, the Regime either got what they wanted, or they got what they deserved.
I laugh outloud. Virtually nobody likes your woman of color.
Don’t fall for the trap. They want republicans to use the 25th on oatmeal brain. I say, let them twist in the wind. After all, 4 years ago they were saying he was of sound mind. Most people knew then that this notion was bunk. Now, let them have Biden for 24! Trump will wipe the floor with oatmeal brain and no amount of election rigging will be able to make up for the whopping that’s coming! Of course, we ALL know the democrats are going to replace him at the DNC convention.
One of the damning conclusions of this report was that Biden was not competent in 2017 – based on taped interviews.
Republicans can’t use the 25th amendment. Only the VP and a majority of the cabinet can invoke it. The only way Republicans get a say is if the Dems use the amendment and the president objects. Then the Republicans get to decide whether to go along with it or keep him in office; if that ever happens I say they should vote to keep him in office. Let him continue to be the Dems’ problem.
A reminder that recently Donald Trump:
– Confused a photo of his rape victim for his ex-wife during a deposition
– Confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi 4 times in a row
– Said Jeb Bush sent our troops to the Middle East
– Said he ran against and is currently running against Barack Obama
– Said President Biden started World War II
– Said that Viktor Orban is the leader of Turkey
– Said you need voter ID to buy bread
– Said windmills are causing whales to wash up on shore
– Confused North Korea and China
– Implied Dallas is in another country
– Was confused about where he was during a speech
– Claimed Hungary borders Russia
– Crowed about passing a dementia test, claiming it was a hard test
When interviewed for the Mueller investigation, he said ~30 times that he did not recall.
Oh you poor thing. Its gonna be tough in November as President Trump wins again and cleans house of all the leftist scum in january
He’ll lose, just like he did in 2020.
Aww…the art of deflection! You loons are great at that! 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Current polls have him at 304 electoral votes, with a ceiling of 347.
So what, hypocrite? If you voted for Biden in 2020, you can’t now complain about gaffes and lapses. In terms of articulating beneficial policies and physical vigor, let’s see Biden keep up with Trump’s day after day.
Here’s a novel idea; have them debate and then let the people decide.
got a list for brandon?
Big deal. Biden can say this many dumb things in a single day.
All of this would make him 10,000 times more competent than Biden.
The law requires the SC to report to the AG. It does not require the AG to make that report public.
Hur has the support of Garland on this, or it never would have seen the light of day.
We forget that Biden is so bad today that even democrats want him gone.
We are approaching the point at which even if Democrats must draft a loser, the down ballot damage of a Gavin NEwsome will be less than Biden/Harris.
“. . . a serious 25th amendment debate.”
Deserved. But please, no. I’d rather deal with soup-for-brains, than the cackling queen.
The Lickspittle Media exposed again.
Our main stream media needs to be burned to the ground. May profits continue to plummet, and layoffs continue to rise. They are a plague.
The Opinion to be decreed has but one underlying Mandate.
It is the People of the United States of America whom are the ultimate Electors of the Our Government.
Not the States,
Not the Congress,
Not the Executive,
Not The Supreme Court of the United States of America.
It is the People of the United States of America.
Have Faith that the Nine Justices know it. 🇺🇸
There are two courts in play. Courts of law and courts of public opinion. The media and D/NeverTrumper allies make their cases primarily to the court of public opinion. If they can secure any wins in the courts of law they take them, of course. But they aren’t the primary objective. The Courts of public opinion are. And as long as they can spin discredited “expert” after discredited “expert” as having credibility by repetition of appearances and phony honorifics they will keep a large percentage of the population in their illusion of Trump as traitor and insurrectionist (classic projection), which is their goal by trotting out the Lawrence Tribe’s with breathless incantations of Trump=Criminal assertions of their version of facts.
The court of public opinion is essential for them to secure their true objective: The presidency and all of the power the office holds. Because make no mistake, the election of 2024 is undoubtedly being conspired against just as the election of 2020 and other selection elections have been, to rig them and fraudulently proclaim victory after the theft. Even after the blatant theft of the 2020 election when six swing states simultaneously shut down voting to public view, only to be restarted in the middle of the night and have a new, fraudulent winner declared the next morning.
This is where the court of public opinion is necessary to prevail. By portraying Trump as uniquely unacceptable and disqualified by a majority of Americans with the slanders and slurs and pronouncements of “experts” in the years and months leading up to November, the public mind will accept the blatant theft of an election as being *plausible*. Which is the most important goal of all for these media and “expert” propaganda efforts. “Of course the criminal insurrectionist who illegally took national security secrets home to share with Putin” must be the accepted refrain from enough Americans to accept the blatant theft that is to come this November. It’s a tried and true tactic, that has worked before. And will continue to work unless the court of public opinion is swayed in large enough margins to make such false proclamations *implausible*. Plausibility of declaring Trump the loser in a rigged and stolen election. That is their end game. Make no mistake.
A unanimous or near unanimous decision in PDJT’s will lead to the D’s saying “Vote for us! We need to pack the Supreme Court to save the Constitution and Democracy itself!”
They are so lame.
They spew the same tiresome tripe over and over again.
I felt that this post was a little confusing. Justice Ketanji, to her credit, was the one who brought up the fact that the President is not listed in what is otherwise a detailed and exhaustive list of office holders who can be disqualified for insurrection. What nobody wants to talk about is WHY the President is not listed, but the answer is very simple: an insurrection, in America, means an uprising AGAINST the President. At the time of the so- called insurrection, Trump was President. Thus any insurrection would necessarily have been an uprising against himself which, in the immortal words of Euclid, is absurd.
The problem we have in this country is an abysmal level of education. People do not know what the word insurrection means. They were told it was what they saw on tv. The fact that a couple hundred unarmed grandma’s and grandpa’s milling around the Capitol taking selfies is not, in actual fact, an insurrection seems to be completely ignored.
A very cogent analysis. A sitting president cannot, by definition, insurrect. What they want to say is that an interference with a federal process of power transfer constitutes an insurrection. But it doesn’t.
They call it an insurrection so they can do what they are doing now, hide behind that word to strip American of their rights….period.
Well stated!
That is completely wrong. The USA is not a monarchy, and an insurrection is not against the president but against the united states themselves (in the constitution, “united states” is a plural, not a singular). It is entirely possible for a president to be guilty of insurrection, just as he can be guilty of treason, which a monarch cannot be.
Besides, if that were the reason it would explain at most why a sitting president would not be disqualified from future office. But it would not explain why former presidents are not disqualified, even if they participate in an insurrection during their successor’s term. Nor would it explain why insurrectionists who were never president are nevertheless not disqualified from being president in the future.
No, the reason the presidency and vice presidency are omitted from both lists (the office the person must previous have held and the offices he’s disqualified from) is simply because the president and vice president are elected by the entire union, and if the electors of the entire union want someone for president or VP there’s no reason they shouldn’t have him. Had a majority of electors decided in 1868 that they wanted Jefferson Davis to be president, there was no reason to exclude him. The section’s purpose was only to stop insurrectionists from being appointed to office, or from being elected by only one district or state.
Biden is Biden and Kamala sounds stupid. When I watched Tucker’s interview with Putin I was impressed with Putin’s intelligence and his thoughtful responses. What a contrast.
As to history, I doubt any prominent people in this administration or more than a few in Congress could equal Putin’s impressive review of his country’s history. But then we are letting maniacs tear down statues and rewrite or erase our own history. What was it Santayana warned about history?
One note in history offers some hope to me. King John, one of the least competent and most corrupt of kings, was so bad that the response was the Magna Carta.
Maybe our worst president and vice president will lead to similar cures of political wounds, like a reduction of the administrative tyranny, the wing clipping of the DOJ and federal ‘law’ enforcement, and a revival of federalism.
One can only hope. But nearly everyone, including those with TDS, has had enough of the current regime which, dissonantly, seems at once both callow and senile, as if managed by retarded children. For example, Blinken [or is it Nod?] insists on a Two State Solution in the Holy Land while both Hamas terrorists and civilized Israel reject it. Tough sell but he doesn’t seem to know what is going on. Give him some toys in a safe room.
By the way, I thought it funny that Putin seemed to wonder who was actually running things in the US. He is one of many with that question.
I don’t think it will be 9-0. Maybe 8-1 or 8-2. But it will tell us who the wingnuttiest of the wingnuts on the left of the court are. This was always a slam dunk case. And, if the 1 or 2 decide to write a dissenting opinion…well…pure comedy gold that will be.
One thing I can guarantee is it will not be 8-2.
It could be 9-0 because stupid people tend to go with the flow.
If the “flow” is righteous…whose stupid then ?.
Same ones but the decision will 9-0 saying Colorado Supreme Court is nuts.
My biggest concern is the fact the Left was attempting to use the 14th Amendment on a President who was not charged nor convicted of insurrection, was impeached by a Democrat congress for J-6 but acquitted by the senate and nowhere in the impeachment articles did they even mention “insurrection” and there is no clear legal definition for “insurrection“ that includes elements that could be charged, yet the Democrats latched onto the word only after they read the constitution for likely the first time ever and found the obscure language in the 14th Amendment and ran with it for political reasons. It’s despicable!
Rick,
Isn’t the 14th Amendment the left’s “go-to” amendment? Wasn’t the ruling in favor of gay marriage based on the 14th? If so, this isn’t at all surprising. I guess one could say that all roads go thru the 14th Amendment these days.
Speaking of which, I’m of the impression that the left is cooking up a new tactic to get Roe codified into law, by using the “involuntary servitude” language of the 13th to suggest that pregnancy is a form of involuntary servitude, ergo abortion should be the law of the land.
Amazing how both the left and right excel at contorting and twisting the Constitution in ways the framers never imagined.
I found the oral arguments to be particularly robust and the justices in some cases perplexed by the arguments made by Murray. The SOS’s atty was abysmal in her performance. Trump’s atty really just left them to it. I’m certain it will be overturned as the justices were clearly concerned more about the process than they were the litigants. I will be surprised if it isn’t a unanimous ruling, which I hope it is.
Most “experts” are anything but. Sort of a corollary of “Those you can, do…” Even more revealing is the stance of the “experts” just before the fall of the Soviet Union.
This Just In:
Stocks On Record-Setting Run
For the first time in history, the S&P 500, the broad-based U.S. index of the largest and best-known companies in the world, is above 5,000.
The S&P 500 opened over the milestone mark at the opening bell on Friday. This comes a day after it touched the level for a brief moment before settling lower.
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/09/1230086474/stocks-sp-record-5000-wall-street-new-high-economy
…………………………………….
Republican efforts to paint the economy as recessionary are hitting a wall of optimism. Apparently investors are ignoring Fox News!
You’re hilarious its all smoke and mirrors just like anything else they control the numbers and the people who put out the numbers. The majority of the people who actually have to buy groceries , clothes , actually have to pay for insurance and medicines , put gas in their cars or have work done to their homes or vehicles know better. So you can go gaslight somewhere. Its election year and they have to make up something again when they steal the election this time because nobody bought the lies last time of why he won hiding in his basement and couldn’t get a hand full of people at a rally so good luck this time around.
“The majority of the people . . .”
A minority voter put it very succinctly: “Under Trump I had money. Under Biden I don’t.”
Stocks are going up because of Trump. They anticipate the SC to rule in Trumps favor.
Good, I hope the stock market does well but, like everything else the government and leftists report, the news soon turn out to be exaggerated.
With inflation and dollar devaluation, of course asset prices are up. Has nothing to do with a ‘booming’ economy unless that is in reference to one that is blowing up.
The stock market is forward thinking, although sometimes short-sighted. So, the market is incorporating its projection of the next president into its valuations. Therefore, the market could be anticipating that Trump will win, which the market believes could result in lower corporate taxes, higher cash flows, and resulting higher valuations. Also, this is an election year, which, historically, has been on the bullish side. Consequently, it would be naive to assume that today’s Bidenonomics is pushing the stock market higher, even if you prefer Biden over Trump.
That said, the market does, sometimes, get it wrong, being overly bullish or bearish based on currect events. The Covid-economy that hit full blast in Q1 2020 is a classic example of an overly bearish market. Stock prices generally took such a hit that the market was essentially projecting disasterous future cash flows not just for 1-2 years, but the next 5-10 years. For those of us that believed the the draconian government policies over Covid were an attempt to impose fascism on America and acclimate the public to it, we also believed that there would be a counter-response to oppose the government fascist policies that would limit the time that the government would get away with their lies about Covid. This meant that companies’ cash flows would begin to normalize after about a 1 year. Knowing all this, I put as much cash as I could get my hands on to invest in stock, which ultimately led to the largest gains I had ever experienced in my lifetime.
Anyway, that ends today’s lesson on the stock market.
You do understand that a good wall street report doesn’t make a good economy. What does high s&p have anything to do with high inflation,high unemployment, and the price of everything doubled?
Trump had a good stock Market AND a great economy. Learn the difference so you can see reality.
I think this is closer to Reality. $3,000 per month for 96 months for a pickup truck.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/garbage-deals-dealership-puts-customers-cars-3000-monthly-payments
Nice try. The national debt accelerated by Biden will bankrupt the country. There is great worry that there may not be enough players in the world left to buy are debt. Layoffs are continuing and credit card debt now averages $6000 per person. Joe is a disaster
Tribe is author of what I consider a really fatuous Harvard Review article on what constitutional legal scholars can learn from quantum physics. Obama was a research assistant on that one.
Hoping for a 9-0, but more likely a 7-2. I can’t see Sotomayer or Jackson voting against Colorado’s’ undemocratic action
I was talking about this to my co-worker yesterday. It will be unanimous or 7-2. It won’t be 8-1 because there will not be a lone holdout for what unfortunately would be political reasons.
You dont even know the basis of the ruling, but already decided the basis is political. That’s some fancy lawyering you got there.
No statute of limitations on murder. Alot of people forget one of the very first things done when Sotero was elected was to attempt to remove the death penalty for treason. I think it was Jim Clyburn that pushed that.
Tribe is a has been of unimaginable proportions. Once a respected law professor, now just another far left wing lunatic who continually embarrasses himself. Raskin is just another despicable Democrat propagandist.
What you’re trying to say is that they are communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) who have imposed the “dictatorship of the proletariat (i.e. hired help)” through one-man, one-vote democrazy, understanding that democracy has existed in the form of a restricted-vote republic since inception in Greece (i.e. even now people are restricted by age). America is communist. The incremental implementation of the principles of communism began in 1860 under the prime fellow traveler of Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln.
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” Karl Marx.
Take a look around you at the invaded, vast, pervasive communist American welfare state, comrade.
Your cynical comment implies that those who hold the Constitution dear don’t have star-spangled banner hearts. Of course we agree with your assessment in our minds, but our hearts know better. The American Experiment is the greatest ever on paper. But, putting that experience into practice holds lesser chance of success than herding cats, especially when literal lives are on the line. It worked well for the first 150 years or so.
There is NOTHING American about America.
America is, by fundamental law, maximal freedom of individuals under a severely limited and restricted government.
Not one scintilla of the global communist Deep Deep American welfare state is constitutional and 24% of the population consists of illegal alien invaders.
So if the SC rules against immunity for Trump, then Pandora’s box is opened. Obama provided billions in cash and precious metals to a listed terrorist Nation while America was at war, treason by definition. Joe Biden has more evidence against him in Hunter’s bribery and extortion scams than Disney has queers. Clintons’ and Bushs’ hang on, Let the chips fall where they may.
Obama had the military kill 4 Americans, one of these extrajudicial murders he ordered. No one is above the law.
Obama has an OLC memo justifying it, so at least he has some legal back-up (whether or not you agree with their reasoning). Trump, on the other hand, has zero legal back-up for his indicted actions.
Democrats had their Jim Crow Laws to justify their racist actions
trolls are not what they used to be
And because they had the law on their side, they weren’t jailed, only immoral. Obama is not at risk of being jailed. Trump is.
The OLC
OK I’ll play stupid. Where does the power of the OLC emanate from? I mean you are employing the logical fallacy of, ‘Defering to Authority” So explain where the office gets its power (authority)
If you don’t know the answer to your question, look it up for yourself instead of demanding to be tutored.
I’m sorry, he had a CAPTIVE analyst write him an excuse note… Just like the Torture Memo that Bush found a legal hack to write. The OLC is not exactly independent AND its full of partisan hacks that will come-up with something to justify anything, including torture, illegal imprisonment, murder… So, don’t go there… We know the score.
And Bush hasn’t been prosecuted for the same reason. I didn’t say that you have to like it, or that it means the decision was moral.
Would that be the same “OLC” that just happened to get an advance copy of Hur’s report and fired off a letter on behalf of POTATUS, demanding that Hur delete the descriptions of senility that purportedly justified his dismissal of the crimes? That one?
No. The letter from the WH appended to the report certainly didn’t come from the OLC.
And it was no accident that Biden got a copy of Hur’s report before it was released to the public, just like Trump got a copy of the Mueller Report before it was released to the public.