Raskin on SCOTUS decision to take up Trump immunity claim: ‘We don’t have a king here’

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) denounced the Supreme Court’s decision Wednesday to consider former President Trump’s argument that he cannot be prosecuted in relation to his behavior surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riots because he was president at the time. 

“This was an obvious case not to take up, and just let the D.C. Circuit Court ruling stand,” Raskin said Sunday during an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”

“We don’t have a king here. We had a revolution against a king, and the Constitution is written so that [the] president’s main job is to take care [that] the laws are faithfully executed, not faithfully violated in his own interest,” he added.

The lower court ruled that Trump is not immune, with the Supreme Court set to hear the case in April. The move further delays Trump’s trial on charges that he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Raskin pinned blame for the move on the three Supreme Court justices nominated by Trump and the court’s other Republican-nominated justices.

“This is a court driven by the both Trump nominees and Bush nominees, and neither of those guys was elected with the popular vote,” he said. “So we’ve got a Supreme Court that is representing the choices of minority presidents, and they have been driving very hard to overturn a whole series of precedents that America has come to take for granted, like Roe v. Wade.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also criticized the decision Sunday, calling it a “disappointment.”

“Their delay in considering this critical issue, this timely issue, is going to delay the resolution of these cases, by months at least,” Durbin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I think that was a disappointment. I think the court has acted quickly in the past when they realized that the presidential timetable was at risk. And I’m really concerned with what they’ve done,” he added.

The Supreme Court is expected to release a decision Monday, which some legal analysts expect will be the court’s take on the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to kick Trump off its ballot citing the 14th Amendment. Justices were previously skeptical in oral arguments of attempts to bar Trump from the ballot.