Peter Doocy Asks Why Trump Doesn’t Just Ask Congress ‘To Make a New Law’ After Spate of Court Losses

Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked the White House press secretary why President Donald Trump does not simply ask Congress to pass bills that would obviate unfavorable court rulings.

The Trump administration has endured a series of losses in the courts on a variety of issues, including immigration, the bureaucracy, and trade. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled that the president’s tariffs on most imports are unlawful because they circumvented Congress’s power and do not, as the administration argued, address an actual “emergency” under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. On Thursday, however, an appeals court paused that ruling, pending arguments.

During Thursday’s White House press briefing, Doocy asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about the unfavorable rulings. Specifically, he inquired as to whether Trump plans to ask Congress to pass legislation that empowers the president to do what courts are saying a president cannot do under current law.

“The courts are basically telling you guys they think the White House’s policies, the president’s policies, are in some way against the law,” Doocy said, putting it mildly. “So, why can’t President Trump ask the Republicans that control the House and the Republicans that control the Senate just to make a new law?”

“Well, these laws have already been granted to the president by the Constitution and by laws that have been previously passed,” Leavitt replied. “If these judges want to be secretary of state or the president, they can run for office themselves. It should be the other way around. But all of the actions the president has taken rely on legal authorities that have already been granted to him by our nation’s existing laws.”

Watch above via Fox News.