ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos cut off Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) after a contentious discussion about whether the President of the United States can openly defy the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stephanopoulos confronted Vance, a committed Trump supporter, with a statement he made about presidential powers.
“Fire everyone in the government then defy the Supreme Court? You think it’s OK for the president to fire the Supreme Court?” Stephanopolous asked.
“We have a major problem here with administrators and bureaucrats in the government who don’t respond to the elected branches,” Vance said, continuing:
Let’s just give one very real-world example of this: in 2019 Donald Trump, having defeated ISIS said, “We should redeploy our troops in Syria and Jordan out of the region.” You had multiple members of the Defense Department bureaucracy who fought him on that. So, what happened? We have sitting ducks in the Levant, three of whom just got killed because the bureaucrats aren’t listening to the political branches.
That’s a fundamental component of our government, George, that whoever is in charge agree or disagree with him, you have to follow the rules. If those people aren’t following the rules, then of course you have to fire them and of course the president has to run the government as he thinks he should. That’s the way the Constitution works, it has been thwarted too much by the way our bureaucracy has worked over the past 15 years.
“The Constitution also says the president must abide by legitimate Supreme Court rulings, doesn’t it?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“The Constitution says that the Supreme Court can make rulings, but if the Supreme Court — and look, I hope that they would not do this — but if the Supreme Court said that the president can’t fire a general, that would be an illegitimate ruling, and the president has to have Article 2 prerogative under the Constitution to actually run the military as he sees fit,” Vance said. “This is just basic constitutional legitimacy. You’re talking about a hypothetical where the Supreme Court tries to run the military. I don’t think that’s going to happen, George, but of course if it did the president would have to respond to it. There are multiple examples in history of the president of the United States doing just that.”
“You made it very clear, the president can defy the Supreme Court. Thanks for your time this morning,” Stephanopoulos said as Vance continued, “No, no, no, George,” before his mic was cut.
Watch the clip above via ABC News.
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