George Stephanopoulos of ABC News abruptly ended his conversation with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) following a heated exchange regarding the extent to which the President of the United States can openly challenge the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court.
During the interview, Stephanopoulos challenged Vance, who is a staunch supporter of Trump, regarding a remark he had previously made about presidential powers.
Stephanopolous questioned, “Is it acceptable for the president to dismiss the entire government and challenge the authority of the Supreme Court?”
“We are facing a significant issue here with government administrators and bureaucrats who fail to respond to the elected branches,” Vance expressed his concern.
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.
Stephanopoulos pressed further, questioning whether the Constitution mandates that the president must adhere to legitimate Supreme Court rulings.
According to Vance, the Constitution grants the Supreme Court the power to make rulings. However, he emphasizes that if the Supreme Court were to assert that the president cannot dismiss a general, it would be an invalid decision. Vance asserts that the president’s authority in Article 2 of the Constitution allows them to oversee the military as they deem appropriate. He believes that such a ruling would go against the fundamental principles of constitutional legitimacy. Although Vance considers this scenario highly unlikely, he acknowledges that if it were to occur, the president would be compelled to respond. He points out that there have been instances in history where presidents have taken such action in response to perceived encroachments on their authority.
“You’ve made it abundantly clear that the president can defy the Supreme Court. Thank you for your time this morning,” Stephanopoulos acknowledged. However, Vance quickly interjected, saying, “No, no, no, George,” before his microphone was abruptly silenced.