Legal scholar shuts down 'dangerous' rhetoric on Supreme Court immunity ruling: 'Rage quickly overtook reason'
Jonathan Turley called out "misleading attacks" from President Biden, Democrats and the media following the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity.
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley called out President Biden, Democrats and the media on "The Brian Kilmeade Show," Tuesday, for "misleading the public" on Monday's Supreme Court decision deeming ex-presidents have substantial protection from prosecution.
TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE: SUPREME COURT RULES EX-PRESIDENTS HAVE SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTION FROM PROSECUTION
JONATHAN TURLEY: What you saw last night was the addiction of rage. You know, that people won't admit it, but they like it. And so the outpouring of it, how rage quickly overtook reason, is always sort of unsettling to watch. You know, the argument that this is we're going to have death squads and people are just going to be whacked left and right. And what really sort of brought it home was the president's address from the White House. What the president said last night was not true, and he was misleading the public about that opinion. It was not just unfair to the Supreme Court, it was unfair to the public that they were told something that simply is not true.
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The amazing thing is that, you know, we have the most successful Constitution, the longest-serving Constitution in the world that's here. It's still here for a reason. We have survived periods that would reduce most countries into a fine pumice. And the reason is that we have a system designed to survive. And what these people ignore is that there are checks and balances on a president. He can be impeached. He can be removed. There are federal courts that can enjoin him. There are all of these protections. Just because the president can't be criminally charged doesn't mean that a president can't be stopped. And so all of this effort to suggest that the president now is just basically a government onto itself, ignores the entirety of the Constitution, but it also reflects this crisis of faith that we have today, and it's being fueled by members of Congress and political leaders who are saying, ‘Oh, we now have a tyranny. We now have a dictatorship. We're going to have death squads.’ You have Whoopi Goldberg saying that gays and reporters will just be disappeared. You have many people saying this will be our last election. All of that overheated rhetoric obviously is quite popular, but it's also dangerous because there's some people that believe it, they actually believe that that's true, and if they do, they believe that anything they do then is justified.
Biden slammed the high court's ruling on Trump v. United States, saying it means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do, in a speedy address Monday evening.
The president spoke for less than five minutes – four minutes and 40 seconds to be exact – before turning his back to the press and walking away.
"This is a fundamentally new principle, and it's a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States," Biden said.
The Supreme Court ruled that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts.
Biden continued his address, saying that the American people must decide whether Donald Trump's assault on democracy on January 6th makes him "unfit" for public office and the highest office in the land.
"The American people must decide if Trump's embrace of violence to preserve his power is acceptable. Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust the presidency to Donald Trump once again. Now knowing, he'll be even more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants to do it," Biden said.
Fox News' Stepheny Price contributed to this report.