Fox News hosts on Monday mocked the liberal dissent to the U.S. Supreme Court granting Donald Trump partial criminal immunity, with one host describing Justice Sonia Sotomayor as “hysterical.”
“The Sotomayor dissent, I think, can be described as apoplectic, hyperbolic,” Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany said.
“She was also equally hysterical in the Grant[s] Pass dissent, when she said that people have the right to sleep!,” fellow host Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery said, feigning outrage in Sotomayor’s voice in response to the court’s ruling last week that Grants Pass, a city in Oregon, can punish people experiencing homelessness for sleeping and camping outside even when local shelters are full.
The hosts were reacting to the court that morning, in a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, finding that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution when it comes to official acts — but not unofficial acts. The court declined to decide what specifically constitutes an official act versus a personal one when it came to January 6th — a core question of the case — instead punting the question to a lower court. The decision ensures that Trump’s federal election interference trial, over his January 6th actions, will not happen before Election Day.
McEnany and Kennedy argued liberal fears that a president could use the ruling to engage in unchecked criminal acts, such as ordering political assassinations, are overblown, and said it was actually a win for Democratic presidential candidates.
“We have checks and balances, in the form of Congress' check on the executive, all throughout the Constitution,” McEnany said.
“Yes, and anyone who serves in the military also takes an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution,” Kennedy said.
“This has to give anyone who's running for president a sigh of relief because this doesn't just cover President Trump,” Kennedy added. “This is a very important constitutional question that has to be answered for many presidencies to come. So, if I were Gavin Newsom, or Kamala Harris, or Joe Biden, I think I would be very relieved by this.”
