Sen. Coons suggests Biden will respect Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Sunday suggested President Biden will respect the Supreme Court's forthcoming ruling on former President Trump's immunity argument.
"I think there's a sharp contrast between former President Trump and President Biden in terms of their respect for the rule of law and how they approach both law enforcement and our legal system,” Coons said on "Fox News Sunday."
The Delaware senator was responding to a question from "Fox News Sunday" anchor Shannon Bream, who asked if Biden would accept the Supreme Court's decision given his criticism of the high court for its decision on his student loan forgiveness proposal.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its opinion this week on Trump's immunity claim, in which he argues he is immune from charges he conspired to subvert the 2020 election due to presidential immunity.
The argument, which has delayed his criminal trial in Washington, D.C., was rejected in lower courts, though the Supreme Court's oral arguments appeared open to carve out some immunity for former presidents. This may not, however, fully meet the wants of Trump's defense team.
It is not clear which day the decision could come down, though the Supreme Court has just days until the justices' self-imposed deadline of finishing opinions by the end of June.
"Former President Trump was in a courtroom in New York, where he attacked the prosecutor, the prosecution, the judge, the jury, the whole process so many times that before he was ultimately convicted by a jury of his peers of 34 felonies, he was subject to a gag order," Coons said, in reference to Trump's hush money trial.
The former president levied a series of attacks against Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the case, along with his family members and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who brought the case. His remarks prompted Merchan to issue a gag order that prohibited him from speaking about Merchan and Bragg's families, jurors, witnesses and family members of any counsel or staff member.
Coons sought to compare this to Biden's handling of the criminal conviction of his son, Hunter Biden, in federal court earlier this month. The president's son was found guilty of three felony counts earlier this month over lying on federal forms about his drug use to illegally purchase a gun, making him the first child of a sitting president to be criminally convicted.
"President Biden, we just saw evidence of this, this past week — his own son was convicted here in a court in Wilmington, Delaware — and he did not ever attack or criticize or question the judge, the prosecutor, the jury, the process. In fact, he said he wouldn’t use the pardon power," Coons said.
Biden ruled out the possibility of commuting the sentence of his son and said he will "abide" by the jury's decision and will not pardon him.