Biden seizes on Trump’s Supreme Court triumph to seek redemption after debate debacle

CNN —

“I dissent!”

President Joe Biden was offering a dramatic, direct response to an epochal Supreme Court ruling that could hand presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump a pass to unchecked power if he wins a second term.

But Biden’s defiance also conveyed a poignant image of a president refusing to be pushed off the greatest political stage after a disastrous debate performance revealed the ravages of age.

Members of the media and public watch as the US Supreme Court reads opinions on July 1 in Washington, DC.

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Biden appeared Monday night in the majestic surroundings of the cross hall just inside the front-door of the White House, with the presidential seal behind him and marble pillars on either side. But his argument — that presidents aren’t kings — was the opposite of regal. Biden said that the high court’s ruling on Trump’s sweeping claim to be shielded from prosecution over his bid to steal the 2020 election — finding that presidents are immune related to official acts — was dangerous and unprecedented.

“Now the American people will have to do what the court should have been willing to do and would not: Americans will have to render a judgment about Donald Trump’s behavior,” Biden said.

His address was both a major moment in the institutional history of the presidency and a calculated political gambit — the first step back from a ghastly and humiliating weekend filled by calls for him to abandon his presidential campaign.

In four minutes, Biden, 81, encapsulated the two increasingly grave and urgent choices facing voters in November.

— Will the country turn again to a 78-year-old former president