Fox Reporter Jacqui Heinrich Grills Karine Jean-Pierre On President Biden's Supreme Court Reforms

5 months ago

At a White House press briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the Supreme Court reforms proposed by President Biden.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Karine.

00:02Is this Supreme Court proposal just an election-year gambit?

00:07I will say this.

00:10I think if you read the Washington Post op-ed

00:13that the President put out yesterday,

00:14if you listen to his speech,

00:16he was reacting to what SCOTUS has been doing over the past —

00:21not just past couple of weeks,

00:22but certainly in the last two years, starting from Dobbs

00:24and so many other important decisions

00:27that have come out of the Supreme Court.

00:31The Dobbs decision certainly was something

00:34that we talked about just two years ago,

00:35and he had a commission to take a look at the Supreme Court.

00:40He certainly appreciated the commission

00:41and what they did and the work that they've done.

00:44But when you have, you know, a Supreme Court —

00:46and the President actually gave examples, right,

00:50of what the decision of immunity that they made recently,

00:55what that means for the President of the United States.

00:57You know? And what we're seeing right now is not normal.

01:01And majority of Americans agree with us, right?

01:03What we're seeing that the Supreme Court is not normal.

01:07And the President spoke to that at length.

01:09He went to the LBJ Library

01:12because of the historic nature of that library,

01:15the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

01:18And there's so much here that's at stake.

01:21And so that's why he wanted to do this.

01:24This is about the right thing to do.

01:26This is about meeting the moment that we're in.

01:28This is about reacting to what the SCOTUS did.

01:32He said in his op-ed,

01:33American democracy is founded on the rule of law.

01:36No one, not the President, not the Supreme Court,

01:38are above the law.

01:40And in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, for example,

01:45it grants presidents immunity for crimes committed in office

01:48and gut fundamental freedoms

01:49recognized for more than 50 years.

01:52And so he wanted to take action on that.

01:54And, you know.

01:55But why would he not then read in top Democrats,

01:59including the Senate Judiciary Chair, about this effort?

02:03Here's the thing.

02:04Majority of Americans want to see this.

02:08They want to see some form of reform.

02:10And the President is certainly want to make sure

02:13that he is aware where majority of Americans.

02:15I will say, and I talked about this a little bit yesterday

02:18when we were in a gaggle,

02:18a range of conservative legal experts

02:21and Republican elected officials have voiced support.

02:23For example, term limits,

02:25which was part of what the President laid out yesterday.

02:28For example, last year,

02:29a bipartisan group of legal experts,

02:31including retired judges and Charles Freed,

02:34Ronald Reagan's Solicitor General,

02:35endorsed term limits for the Supreme Court.

02:37Stephen Calabresi,

02:39the Chairman of the Federalist Society

02:40who served in the administrations of Presidents Reagan

02:44and George H.W. Bush, he also endorsed term limits.

02:46You had Marco Rubio, a Senator, right now, right?

02:50A current Senator endorsed this as well,

02:52along with other congressional Republicans.

02:55So there is bipartisan support for this.

02:58I'm trying to understand how we got to this in the last week

03:02because you brought up the President's commission.

03:04His commission also found on term limits

03:07that a statutory change for term limits,

03:11for instance, would be inherently unstable,

03:14underscored constitutional doubts,

03:16said that the composition would create,

03:19generate greater uncertainty and distress.

03:20The President himself, on the campaign trail in 2020,

03:24said about term limits, the President's come and go.

03:27Supreme Court justice is safe for generations.

03:30I'm not trying to change that at all.

03:31That was two different days he spoke to this.

03:33So how did we get there?

03:36First of all, he appreciates the commission.

03:38He appreciates the work that they've done.

03:40Their job was to give the President

03:42some thoughts and ideas, and obviously the President

03:44makes the final decision on how he wants to move forward.

03:47We have to look at what the Supreme Courts have done.

03:50Wait, wait, wait, wait.

03:52You've got to let me answer the question.

03:55I'm not done. Let me finish the question.

03:57In the past several weeks, the actions

03:59that the Supreme Court has taken

04:02in undermining democracy and the rule of law,

04:06that's important.

04:07The President felt he needed to address this.

04:09Remember, we were supposed to go to LBJ Library two weeks ago,

04:13and we went two weeks ago this past Monday, yesterday.

04:17And so the President still wanted to move forward,

04:20still wanted to make sure he addressed this important issue.

04:23I mean, just the past few weeks.

04:25These past —

04:26Eliminating the filibuster, then.

04:27I mean, look, we are —

04:29he laid out the three ways that he wants to move forward.

04:32We're going to have, hopefully, a healthy debate with Congress

04:36on what this is going to look like.

04:38This is going to be legislation that we want to move forward with.

04:41And I will say this, you know,

04:45one of the reasons the President ran in 2020

04:47was because of what he saw in Charlottesville,

04:50was because of the fear of, you know,

04:53wanting to make sure that we protect the soul of our nation.

04:56That was part of it. And just look at what's happened,

04:59you know, the last several years

05:03and the actions that the Supreme Court has taken.

05:06I mean, this is a President

05:07that was on the Judiciary Committee

05:10for almost the 36 years that he was President, right?

05:13If you think —

05:13Yes on the filibuster?

05:15I actually answered this.

05:16I said, we're going to have a healthy debate with Congress

05:19on what this is going to look like.

05:20The President laid out the three ways

05:22that he sees moving forward.

05:24There's — not going to go beyond those three measures

05:26that he's laid out,

05:28but we're going to have a healthy debate,

05:29and that's what's important here.

05:31The filibuster's no question.

05:32I just said, we are going to —

05:34Well, it's a question, not a question.

05:36We welcome — we welcome a healthy debate

05:39on how to move forward.

05:40He put forth three ways to move forward on this,

05:44on really dealing with SCOTUS reform,

05:46and I just laid out some conservative legal experts

05:50who agree with us, who agree with us,

05:52at least on the term limits.

05:53They've been very clear as well.

Fox Reporter Jacqui Heinrich Grills Karine Jean-Pierre On President Biden's Supreme Court Reforms

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