CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer doesn’t hold back when it comes to expressing disgust for Trump’s sustained attack on American rights.
Trump has done everything he can to destroy civil discourse and democratic norms that have protected Americans for over two hundred years.
CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic wrote a scathing article this weekend ripping into Trump for relishing the idea of tearing down our democratic institutions while railing against them when it comes to defending the white males he associates conspires with…
Over the past 24 months, Trump has scorned judges, derided the American court system, and trampled on all manner of constitutional principles. Trump has especially ridiculed due process of law, the bedrock against government’s arbitrary denial of a person’s life, liberty or property…. At the same time, the President expresses outrage over what happens to the men of his world.
Biskupic begins by writing that “Two years ago Sunday, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump derided US District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, hearing a lawsuit against Trump University, for his ‘Mexican’ heritage and complained of being ‘railroaded’ by the legal system.”
Over the past 24 months, Trump has scorned judges, derided the American court system, and trampled on all manner of constitutional principles. Trump has especially ridiculed due process of law, the bedrock against government’s arbitrary denial of a person’s life, liberty or property.
Continuing, she writes:
This week, Trump suggested immigrants at the border could be summarily deported without any hearing to determine if they deserved asylum or were US citizens wrongly apprehended. In a Fox News interview that aired on Thursday, Trump flatly deemed the system of immigration judges “corrupt” and said, “Whoever heard of a system where you put people through trials? Where do these judges come from?”
[…]
In the same interview, Trump responded to the NFL policy prohibiting kneeling during the “Star-Spangled Banner,” with a message for players who refuse to stand for the anthem: “Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.”
And it is clear to anyone who has been paying attention that this attitude is all by design, structured to support his white nationalist agenda.
“Due Process. Citizenship. Racial Equality. Trump’s targets seem to merit none of these. It is not lost on Trump’s detractors that he routinely takes aim at immigrants and racial minorities,” Biskupic writes, adding that: “At the same time, the President expresses outrage over what happens to the men of his world.”
Want some examples. There are plenty, and Biskupic provides a couple of examples:
- “Trump emphasized in February to the news media, ‘He says he’s innocent.’ Then in a tweet, Trump wrote: ‘Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused – life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?'”
- “In April, Trump referred to an FBI raid on the home and office of Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, executing a court-approved subpoena, as ‘an attack on our country … an attack on what we all stand for.'”
And the greater issue is the fact that through his continual sustained attacks on democratic norms, Trump is eroding the very fabric of our democracy and its foundation in the rule of law.
Critics warn that denunciations that once seemed so aberrational may be seeping into the American psyche and influencing how government operates.
[…]
Trump’s norm-shattering derision of the courts and constitutional principles has only accelerated in the past two years, public responses appear more polarized. Opponents are overwhelmingly Democratic. Trump’s approval rating among Republicans remains high.
There also may be fatigue. Trump is constant. His questioning Thursday of a legal process for people apprehended at the border drew scant public response.
Biskupic concluded her piece with the following warning:
The stream of Trump rhetoric against due process “is exhausting, yet requires us to remain vigilant,” said Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Gupta said an overriding concern is that dehumanizing language and attacks on minorities influence administration policy “The daily hits to due process are real and it is dangerous for any of us to accept this as normal,” she said.
Irrespective of how responses have evolved over the past two years, Trump has not deviated from his personal script.
As he declared in May 2016, when many of his comments were rallying fans and roiling critics, “You think I’m going to change? I’m not changing.”
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