US

Scranton Joe, the perpetual scrapper, intends to go nowhere

Biden’s rebuke of US supreme court decision bears little resemblance to haunted figure from presidential debate

US president Joe Biden remarks on US supreme court's immunity ruling. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Keith Duggan's face
Keith Duggan in Washington
Tue Jul 2 2024 - 06:36

The other guy turned up at the White House on Monday night. The Joe Biden who took to the podium to deliver a condemnatory rebuke of the US supreme court decision on presidential immunity bore little resemblance to the haunted, lost figure who suffered through a shambolic debating experience against Donald Trump last Thursday night.

Now, the colour had returned to his face. Against the familiar backdrop of wood panelling, presidential seal and stars and stripes flag, he looked as though he belonged there again. His voice was clear and lit with suppressed anger. He was reading from a teleprompter, but he looked natural and animated and did the Clint Eastwood squint that he reserves for big occasions. He spoke for five minutes and even it if wasn’t quite the Gettysburg address, it was a striking critique of the highest court of the land by a sitting president. It was as though Super Joe had recovered from his bout of kryptonite poisoning.

Monday, July 1st will be recorded as a monumental day whenever the histories of this histrionic era in American political life are being refined and polished. The final decision by the supreme court before the conclusion of its term – perhaps or perhaps not for a period of flag-hanging and free yachting holidays – was interpreted by many legal scholars as granting carte blanche to any president to behave however he or she may please, without fear of legal repercussion.

That interpretation formed the moral spine of a scornful dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was one of the three liberal justices in the minority. But the ruling came even as the Democrats tried to deal with the fallout of Biden’s shocking collapse in last week’s debate with Trump in Atlanta. The weekend had been filled with calls for Biden to retire from this year’s election by senior American journalistic figures who might count as staunch supporters. The Biden family sought refuge in Camp David on Sunday. Monday morning was spent trying to assuage the fears of big campaign donors.

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Trump was able to assume the role of interested observer and said in a radio interview that like it or not, the Democrats were probably stuck with their nominee. “They say getting him out is very hard because he has the delegates, he has the votes. And if he doesn’t want to get out there’s not a thing they can do about it.”

[ US presidential immunity ruling: ‘With fear for our democracy, I dissent’, supreme court judge says ]

So, the supreme court ruling gave the Biden campaign the perfect opportunity to get the president in front of a microphone again to prove he’s still got the chops without having to explain himself. In the long term, the Biden campaign strategists will have questions to ask themselves about how they allowed their candidate to walk on to the stage in Atlanta for a debate whose format clearly caused him to lose his composure and train of thought.

But on Monday night, they clawed back a little lost ground, with Biden firmly allying himself with the sentiments of Sotomayor and once again framing the upcoming presidential battle as one in which he stands as the champion of democracy. He spoke about the office of the presidency as one where you “not only face moments when you need the courage to exercise the full power of the presidency, but you also need the wisdom to respect the limits of the power of the office...”.

“This nation was founded on the principle that there no kings in America,” he said.

“No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. With today’s supreme court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed. For all practical purposes, today’s decision means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do. This is a fundamentally new principle, and it is a dangerous precedent – because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by law, even and including the supreme court of the United States”.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that former US president Donald Trump has some immunity from prosecution in his federal election interference case.

And it was then he turned to the harrowing events of January 6th, 2021 and the role Donald Trump played.

“He sat there and watched it happen that day. Attacks on the police. A ransacking of the Capitol. A mob hunting down House [of Representatives] speaker Nancy Pelosi. Gallows erected to hang the vice-president Mike Pence. I think it is fair to say it was one of the darkest days in the history of America. Now the man who sent that mob into the US Capitol is facing potential criminal conviction for what happened that day.”

It was impossible not to wonder why Biden could not have delivered such a vivid sermon during his rehearsed speeches on Thursday night. He warned the public that as a result of the court’s decision success in the November election meant that Donald Trump would return to office “even more emboldened to do whatever he wants to do”, and quoted Sotomayor’s closing line: “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

It was a defiant and even fiery statement and was reminiscent of the impromptu appearance Biden made in late February after a legal report called his mental agility and memory into question.

He did not take questions. But this address will have to mark the beginning of a series of appearances and performances designed to convince supporters and sceptics alike that he is fit to campaign for a second term. Still, it was a clear statement that Scranton Joe, the perpetual scrapper, intends to go nowhere: that as far as he is concerned, last Thursday night’s debacle is already forgotten.

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