A local Democratic congressman says it’s up to President Joe Biden and his closest advisers to decide what his political future holds.
Following a debate performance by the sitting president last week that many observers felt was shaky, there have been questions raised about Biden’s expected nomination this summer to run for a second term.
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-25) said on Monday that he hopes the debate performance by Biden was more or less a one-off, and that Biden will spring back.
“I’m hopeful that President’s Biden’s night was a bad night,” said Morelle, who added that “even elite performers, all disciplines, whether it’s sports or the arts, have bad nights. I think we’ll have to see over the next several weeks as this continues to unfold.”
Some Biden allies have been emphatically saying he should not drop out of the race due to last week’s debate. Morelle told reporters the decision on moving forward is the president’s to make.
“I think there’s a lot of questions that still need to be answered. I wouldn’t write Joe Biden off because of one bad performance,” Morelle said. “By the same token, I think he has to make a decision, his family and his inner circle about whether they think he feels he can still fulfill his obligations."
Morelle was also strongly critical of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Monday, which said a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers. Morelle said that sets a “terrible precedent” and said the justices who were part of the majority on this ruling have decided that former President Donald Trump is above the law.
“Giving immunity to a sitting president, who in his or her official acts is committing treason, or doing something that’s treasonous, they essentially gave a blank check to today and said in your official act, you can't be held responsible, even if you do things contrary to the Constitution,” Morelle said.
Trump said on social media after the ruling that it was a “big win for our Constitution and democracy.”
“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," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. “And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
Roberts insisted that the president “is not above the law." But in a fiery dissent for the court's three liberals, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
This story includes reporting by the Associated Press.
