“In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.” That was the conclusion Justice Sonia Sotomayor drew in her piercing dissent from the Supreme Court’s conservative majority’s ruling in (the aptly titled) Trump v. The United States that the president has absolute immunity for “official acts” undertaken while he is in office. Happy early July 4th.
The implications of this decision, as Sotomayor notes, are profound. “When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution,” Sotomayor wrote. “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
Bribery, corruption, murder, and military coups are all now legal, provided the president undertakes them under the still hazy umbrella of “official acts.” One can now imagine a second Trump presidency as a miasma of immorality, a four (or more!) year crime spree, the end of any semblance of democracy. This ruling is a green light for fascism, and Trump and the creeps ready to enact his corrupt whims will surely understand it as such.
Every four years, we are told that this is the most important election of our lifetime. This is often tiresome and a little silly, even if it is always plausible. It is undoubtedly true now. If reelected, Donald Trump will have an extraordinary new set of powers. He will have a green light to commit crimes and to corrode American democracy in ways that are both big and small. He has already promised to use his existing powers to dramatically remake the federal government in his own twisted image. There can be little doubt that the country will be profoundly degraded, possibly permanently, if he returns to power. He cannot return to the White House.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States only makes this election’s stakes higher. It also only makes it clearer that Joe Biden must withdraw from the race and step aside for a younger and more capable candidate to take on Trump.
It is, after Thursday’s disastrous debate, abundantly clear that Biden can no longer be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. What voters saw on Thursday made it clear that the president is incapable of fulfilling the duties of the presidency now—and that there is no possible way that he will be physically and mentally fit to fulfill those duties at the end of his second term. Nevertheless, thanks in large part to the stubbornness of his family and closest advisers, Biden has resisted calls to resign the presidency or even withdraw from the 2024 race. Instead he and his supporters have insisted that he can, somehow, convince voters that he will be younger and more competent four years from now than he is now.
Thursday’s debate was not just a bad performance from Biden. It was a sign of a man in the midst of serious and tragic mental decline. Voters cannot—and should not—be expected to swallow real concerns about the nation’s first octogenarian president just because his opponent represents an existential threat to the country. That is especially true given that there are many, many capable (and younger!) options available, including Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris.
The best argument for Trump’s opponent is one that runs through the decision the Supreme Court released on Monday morning: that Donald Trump’s return to the presidency would augur a dramatic transformation of the country and its institutions. That it would inaugurate a crime spree. That it would bring about a level of corruption that would surpass anything we have seen in this country for more than a century. Trump’s political project is an existential threat to the country itself. And the Supreme Court just handed him full immunity as he pursues it.
But if that is the case—and it is—then the Democrats owe it to the country and their voters to provide a better nominee. The best option for pushing back authoritarianism in this country surely cannot be an 81-year-old who is only fully capable for a few hours (at most!) a day. If the country really is under threat—and, again, it is!—then the seriousness of the moment must be reflected in the Democratic Party’s nominee. Right now it simply is not. And it won’t be, unless Joe Biden recognizes that the only way to secure his legacy is to step aside.
Monday’s Supreme Court decision is the starkest warning yet about just how disastrous a second Trump presidency will be. Thursday’s debate was, unfortunately, a different warning: It was a clear sign that Joe Biden is not capable of fulfilling a second term. Voters know this. Asking them to support a candidate with those obvious deficiencies, even with the existential threat posed by Trump, is too much. It’s time to move on. The future of the country depends on it.
