Former President Bill Clinton warned Americans Thursday that Donald Trump’s rejection of the Supreme Court’s authority is the thing keeping him up at night during the president’s second term.
“The Supreme Court’s made some good decisions, which so far have been ignored,” the 42nd president said on The View Thursday. “And so I’m worried about that, and you should be worried about that, whatever your politics.”
Clinton even expressed anxiety that the “courts won’t hold until we have the midterm elections.”
As an example, Clinton brought up Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the 29-year-old man from El Salvador who was wrongfully deported to CECOT, the country’s supermax prison, in March. Judges across the nation and in the Supreme Court alike have ruled that Garcia was deported in error and that it’s the government’s duty to “facilitate” his return home to America.
But Trump has ignored those rulings, alleging that Garcia is a member of the designated foreign terrorist organization MS-13.
“They sent him away then manufactured a picture that made it look like he had MS-13 on his hands, which he didn’t, and the guy’s still there in jail,” said Clinton.
In April, President Trump seemed to mistake a photoshopped image of “MS-13″ written over Garcia’s knuckle tattoos for the real thing, The actual tattoos depicted a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull.
Clinton, who joined the show alongside author James Patterson to promote their new book The First Gentleman, added that the Supreme Court will better be able to hold the president accountable if Democrats reclaim presidential power.
“I have a sneaking suspicion that if our party wins the White House in the next election, there’ll be a hallelujah moment, and the Supreme Court will rediscover the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the limits,” he said as the crowd applauded.
He hasn’t lost all hope.
“I’ll be happy if that happens because all of us should operate [with] guardrails,” he said. “The whole purpose of the Constitution was to repeal royal government, unaccountable government, that no Democrat or Republican can be without accountability... So we’ll see what happens. But I’m pretty upbeat about it.”
Clinton, 78, also took the interview opportunity to stand by his assessment that former President Joe Biden’s mind was “clear” during his presidency. Despite Trump, most Republicans, and even many Democrats insisting that Biden’s mental acuity declined while he was in office, Clinton said that he was not concerned. He acknowledged the reports that alleged Biden’s mental downturn, but maintained that Biden, now 82, is still with it.
“All I can say is whenever I was around him, his mind was clear, his judgment was good and he was on top of his brief,” Clinton said.
Clinton, however, did question the White House’s decision to allow Biden to travel overseas before going head to head with Trump in an onstage debate.
“He was 80 years old. What the heck is he doing that for?” Clinton said. “Why was that allowed to happen?”
He added, ”There’s a lot of questions. I don’t know. All I know is I think we should think less about that, more about the future.”
