Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said democracy in the United States is “at risk,” calling President Trump a “lawless, angry man” during an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
When asked by host Kristen Welker whether he believes the U.S. is in a constitutional crisis, Schumer said he does.
“Democracy is at risk,” he said. “Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him.”
Schumer is referring to Trump’s recent attacks against U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the Trump administration to turn around flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members. The president later called for the impeachment of Boasberg amid outrage on the right over the judge’s ruling.
“Now we have to fight that back in every single way,” Schumer continued. “And we actually have had over 100 cases in the courts where we’ve had a very good record of success. So Donald Trump, infuriated by that success, said judges should be impeached.”
When asked whether he believed Trump’s statement saying he would not defy a court order, Schumer responded that he doesn’t “trust him.”
“We have to watch him like a hawk,” he said. “Defying court orders is why our democracy is at risk, and we’ll have to do everything to fight back in that regard.”
Trump’s calls for Boasberg to be impeached have been heavily criticized, even eliciting a rare public response from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who said impeachment “is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
Trump has since doubled down on his attacks, decrying the entire concept of nationwide injunctions to halt his agenda and calling for the Supreme Court to intervene.
