A former White House lawyer who served during President Donald Trump’s first term ripped Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for denigrating judges who rule against the administration.
Ty Cobb joined Thursday’s OutFront on CNN, where Erin Burnett asked him to weigh in on the legal issues surrounding Trump’s tariffs, which he imposed on more than 100 countries on April 2, bypassing Congress. In doing so, the president justified the move by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled that most of those tariffs are invalid. But on Thursday, an appeals court paused the ruling and reinstated the tariffs.
Trump officials responded to the initial ruling by slamming “rogue judges,” one of whom was actually appointed by Trump. During Thursday’s press briefing, Leavitt accused the judges of abusing their power “to usurp the authority of President Trump.”
Burnett asked Cobb about those remarks.
“They’re going back to the, ‘Any judge that would rule against [us] is ‘activist,'” the host said of the administration. “You’ve already pointed out, not just the credibility of these judges, but one of them was appointed by Trump himself. What do you say, though, to that, to her?”
Cobb replied:
I don’t think creepy Karoline – when she speaks – I don’t think anybody in America really takes
her seriously on a matter of substance. I mean, she’s not learned by any imagination. And I think her comments are clearly so defensive and so ill-informed that people might largely turn her out. She’s wrong.And keep in mind, these courts are not trying to participate in international trade matters. All they’re doing is ruling on whether a statute authorizes actions by a president. Did Congress delegate its authority to the president under this statute? And the statute in question has never in history been used in connection with tariffs. So, I think the likelihood is that this statute will be upheld and enforced in a way that precludes the president from trying to pretend that he has these all-encompassing powers.
Watch above via CNN.