4 weeks ago
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A former White House lawyer who served President Donald Trump during his first term took a jab Thursday at press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a new nickname as he called her out for attacking federal judges who blocked the president’s tariff plans.
Leavitt slammed three U.S. Court of International Trade judges at Thursday’s White House press briefing, labeling them “activist judges” and accusing them of abusing their power to “usurp the authority of President Trump.”
The press secretary’s comments came shortly after the judges paused Trump’s sweeping tariffs Wednesday, arguing that the president exceeded his authority by imposing the tariffs under an emergency powers law. The tariffs were not blocked for long, however, after a federal appeals court temporarily reinstated most of them Thursday.
“There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process,” Leavitt said. “America cannot function if President Trump or any other president for that matter has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”
Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront” that Leavitt’s comments “are clearly so defensive and so ill-informed that people might largely [tune] her out.”
“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,” Cobb said.
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The CNN guest tells Burnett the courts are not trying to participate in international trade but are ruling on whether a statute authorizes actions by a president.
“The statute in question has never in history been used in connection with tariffs,” Cobb said. “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.”
English (US) ·